The Shell. January 12, 2013

In one of the shops in Chartres , I found a shell made out of clay. Of course, I immediately thought of the Camino. I purchased the shell to be hung on a wall in one of my rooms. I thought that every shell is a half shell, meaning it is not complete. Its match is " somewhere" in this world.

We are all like every shell on the seashore; we are incomplete always looking for the other half to complete us. There is an emptiness within the human heart that yearns to be filled so that our lives feel whole and complete. The journey is to find the other half ...to fill the void...to be complete. And so we journey and move through life in relationships, marriages, careers, vocations , entertainment, possessions, looking for these realities to complete our humanities. In the end we feel much like an empty shell. Nothing and no one can truly complete us. The strongest of marriages know this painful truth.

We are searching for God, the only One who can complete us. God is our other half and when we discover this mystery , the pearl of great price is hiding within the embrace of these two shells naturally made for each other. Jesus called it Kingdom, the realm of God in which every human being transfigured becomes our other half. Christ made peace with his blood and passion , making whole and complete what had previously been torn asunder. Buen camino. Padre