The peony- an intensely fragrant, rogue-petaled flower that blooms this time of year- starts out as a small, tight bud, encased in a green sheath. Ants come along and find the sweet nectar surrounding it. As they suck up the nectar, they help the bud loosen, open up, and bloom.
Though all of the petals that will make the flower so beautiful are contained inside of the bud, they are still tightly bound. As the peony begins as a bud, so we begin our life with God. We need to let Jesus surround us: we need his love to be able to open us up to who he made us to be. Like the ant, Jesus knows where the sweetness is and will keep working to get at it! The chains of sin may be strong and the trials of life may have hardened us, but this is precisely where the ant comes excitedly to feast, knowing what goodness the bud holds.
The tighter the bud, the more fervently the ant works, spurred on by the certainty of finding nectar. The more we turn over to him everything that holds us bound, the more we can begin to taste the sweetness of life within- his life in us, and ours in his. Only in allowing him access to every facet of our lives can we begin to perceive the hint of sweetness present in everything, even that which locks us up tightly. Through the mystery of his love, that which locks us up tightly and would otherwise keep us from blossoming becomes the very means by which we are enabled to be become fully alive.
We just celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi, the feast of the Blessed Sacrament, in which the appearance of bread is a veil for what’s really there- the Body and Blood of Christ. During Benediction, a blessing from Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the priest prays, “You have given them bread from heaven,” to which the response is, “Having all sweetness within it.” The Body and Blood of Christ is all sweetness and has all sweetness within it. The sweetness we have within ourselves can only come to light, can only be found, and come into its true identity when he finds us and infuses his sweetness into us. We feed on him when he comes to us in the Holy Eucharist, and in encountering him and letting him work on us, he can bring out his sweetness in us. Let us allow him to bring completion the work he has begun in us, and allow him to open us up through his sweetness.
~ Written by Sister M. Benedicta