St. John of the Cross describes Christ as being a rich mine with many pockets that contain treasures, so many treasures we can never dig them all up. This is fascinating imagery that is far different from many of the other more common images used to depict the essence of our Lord. The next step in the imagery is that we can’t just reach in a pluck out a juicy plum. We have to suffer for it first. Rarely are the finest of gems just found lying on the surface waiting for us to pick them up and head off to the assay office. We have to dig for them. We have to sweat, get tired, run out of breath and get discouraged before we find the best stuff. I wonder sometimes if we have to suffer before we can truly recognize the value of the treasure we uncover when we finally begin to prefer nothing to Christ.
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