Angelus News | January 26, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 2

Heather King is an award-winning
author, speaker, and workshop leader.
plates, and mysterious movements
deep within the earth’s surface. After
millions of years, these brilliant, sparkling
gems emerge (helped along by
master cutters, polishers, and jewelry
designers like Robert Procop, who
figures prominently in the exhibit).
But gems also have a sinister side.
They’re mostly worn by women. At
this level, they’re insanely expensive:
in 2015, a “perfect” 100-carat diamond
sold at Sotheby’s for $22 million. Put
the two together and mayhem, at some
point, is bound to result.
Having spent most of my own
unglamorous life reading rather than
boning up on carats, the phrase “iconic
gems” evokes any number of juicy
stories, novels, and films where the lust
for jewels has led to ruin.
Anthony Trollope’s 1871 novel “The
Eustace Diamonds,” for example, in
which gold digger and pathological liar
Lizzie Greystock marries the sickly Sir
Florian Eustace knowing he will soon
die and leave her a wealthy widow.
The diamonds are a family heirloom
that Lizzie coolly refuses to relinquish.
Romantic hijinks and interminable
litigation ensue, the upshot being that
Lizzie, satisfyingly,
gets just what Stained-glass windows
she deserves.
depicting the Parable
Guy de Maupassant’s
1884
of the Hidden Treasure
(left) and the Parable of
the Pearl (right) in Scots’
short story “The Church, Melbourne. |
Necklace” is a
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
cautionary tale
about a woman
who disdains her loving, faithful
husband and prefers to live in fantasy.
When they’re invited to a fancy ball,
she borrows an expensive diamond
necklace from a friend, a move that
results in one night of ecstasy and a
lifetime of abject misery.
That’s not even counting the German-born
film director Max Ophuls’
“The Earrings of Madame de…”
(1953), a romantic drama that ends
with a duel and an implied suicide.
But far be it for me to be a wet blanket.
The once-in-a-lifetime show runs
through April 21. So go. Ooh and aah
at these wonders of nature. Gasp at the
brilliance, the vivid colors, the perfection.
Ponder the fact that such gems
occur nowhere else in the solar system.
Let’s not forget, however, that Jesus
also knew about jewels. “Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
seeking beautiful pearls, who, when
he had found one pearl of great price,
went and sold all that he had and
bought it” (Matthew 13:45–46).
Here’s the distinction: the kingdom of
heaven is not reducible to a stone. The
kingdom of heaven, for which we’re
willing to give up everything we own,
can’t be bartered, bought, traded, or
sold. It’s beyond price.
And you never have to keep it in a
safe.
January 26, 2024 • ANGELUS • 31