A pearl of great price
All things work together for good for those who love God
In 2002 Mike and I were holidaying in Southern France and in the tourist office of the small village in which we were staying, I picked up a leaflet about an outdoor exhibition of sculpture. A couple of days later we decided to explore and drove to the village of Aups, down a narrow track to a large wooden gate. As requested, we rang the bell and a gentle voice told us that she would be there in five minutes or so to open the gate. A petite lady appeared and in French explained that we were most welcome to explore and when we felt we had finished, to go to her studio. The lady, I was to discover, was Maria de Faycod, an extraordinary sculptress. Mike and I wandered along this track amidst olive trees with the smell of wild thyme all around. And then in the dip, we caught a glimpse of something that was to take my breath away. Ahead of us were a number of large pieces of sculpture, mostly, I was to learn, in Carrara marble, some in bronze, which were breathtaking in their beauty and fluidity. It was a place of utter peace and incredible beauty and I remember saying to Mike that if I had to describe it, I felt like an open air Cathedral – a place with the ability to convey spiritual truths in a way that nothing else can. When we had finished soaking up this experience, we did, as requested, find our way to her studio, to find Maria de Faycod working on a vast fountain, commission, she explained, by the Tattinger Champagne house. But around her studio were sketches – early workings of pieces we had seen in the display, yet different to the final piece. And scattered around the grounds were sculptures in other mediums – pieces yet to be, yet all seemed to have a story. I was entranced.
Two years ago, we went back. This time we saw a piece in the making of the Stations of The Cross that had been commissioned by the Lourdes community – one of 17 pieces carved over a five year period and I understand available to the public for the first time at Lourdes this year, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Sanctuary of Lourdes . They are utterly beautiful, speaking of love, hope and transformation.
Of her own work, Maria says:
The beginning of this act of creation is the mysterious meeting with a block of marble, from which will appear a beautiful shape.
Then with extreme care but with an unshakeable passion, I must conquer the inertia of the material to free the sculpture which is formed by millions of crystals, each one carrying a quintessence which it received at the beginning of creation for the day when it would become incarnate in order to witness to the hand of the Creator God.
I will come back to Maria in a moment.
When I read again a couple of weeks ago those words of St. Paul that we heard a moment ago, I was bowled over by them. I’ve read them on numerous occasions in the past, but suddenly, I was struck by their power; I found them utterly amazing, reminding me of God’s incredible love for us, the diverse, glorious, fallible, inspirational, argumentative, courageous, fearful, mean spirited, generous children he called into being.
If God is for us, who can be against us; nothing will separate us from the love of God. Powerfully uplifting words.
During the same two weeks that these words have been flowing through my mind, I have met a wide range of people, from different walks of life, among them:
· There was the young couple whose baby son had been stillborn at 37 weeks;
· The lady desperate with anxiety because the course of chemotherapy needed to help in her fight against breast cancer had been cancelled a third time - she was not well enough to stand the rigors of chemotherapy; yet every second that she waited, she envisaged the cancer within ravaging her body.
· The nurse from the Philippines feeling so torn as she thinks about her family and friends back at home struggling to rebuild their lives following the devastation of the recent floods and landslides;
· The young gentleman, trapped in his bed unable to speak easily or move unaided following a massive stroke.
People in other parts of the world continue to live in poverty with little food, in fear of brutality or worse still, death at the hands of a government whose responsibility is to protect its people. And within our own country, there are families who struggle to pay their bills, who live with the prospect of losing their homes. And others still who have no home, save for the cardboard box that affords what shelter it can.
And while the world struggles there is the Anglican Communion that some feel is tearing itself apart concerning issues of sexuality – both in terms of homosexuality and who should and who should not be consecrated as Bishops. God looks at his children and weeps.
I suspect there are many people, including those of faith who would at times wonder whether all things really do work together for those who love God. It is easier to discern the truth of words and treasure them when life is going relatively well, but those same words must also have the ability to speak to us, and lead us into all truth in the darkest of days. Did that young couple feel, as they nursed their dead baby son, that all things work together for good for those who love God – at that moment, I suspect not.
Which brings me back to Maria de Faycod – as she works with her marble with extreme care and unshakeable passion, so God works with his creation with tenderness, care and even greater passion. As I stood, looked and marvelled at the beauty and power of her work, the finished piece, I had no idea at all of all that had gone before to enable the beauty before me – the mistakes, the joy, the pain, exhilaration and exhaustion. The glory of the finished piece could not have been possible without all of it though Maria may well have wondered at moments whether anything good would come from the piece of marble in front of her and her chisel.
And it is possibly in those moments of despair, when we are devoid of energy, vision and even hope that (again recalling the words of St. Paul) the very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
So I think it is with all of us – God takes even the worst bits of our lives and mysteriously works with them, reshaping, transforming those experiences and circumstances.
Personal experience has taught me that it is not always easy to say this when you are in the middle of something difficult and painful, but nevertheless, hold on to it, even though you may not understand at that moment . The same Holy Spirit who intercedes with sighs too deep for words will lead us, shape and fashion us as individuals and communities until we ultimately become that which God created us to be – and that applies to the Church, perhaps especially to the church which is not ours, but a body called into being by God in Christ for the furtherance of his Kingdom on earth.
God is for us, who can be against us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? I am certain that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God.
That is a pearl of great price.
Canon Lesley McCormack, 27th July 2008
