Daily Retreat 07/31/08

2008 Jul 31 Thu Jer 18: 1-6/ Ps 145(146): 1b-2. 3-4. 5-6ab/ Mt 13: 47-53   From today's readings:  "Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD....  Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD, his God, Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them....  every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."   Clay in the Hands of the Potter   We all believe in God as our Creator, but at times, we forget that our creation is an immediate and continuous, ongoing relation, not a static happenstance from the distant past.  As the saying goes: "Be patient with me - God isn't done creating me yet!"  God initially created the physical universe at the beginning of time, but it still would collapse instantly into nothingness if God did not continue to uphold its existence.  Likewise, God initially created you and me in the physical order at the moment of conception, but the continuation of our life is at every moment still dependent on His beneficence as our Creator.   A beautiful biblical image of this is found in chapter 18 of the book of Jeremiah - as the prophet notes the clay's pliability in the potter's hands, the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah, reminding him (and us) that "indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, house of Israel!"   Have the scars and sins of your past totally mangled your life?  No matter, because just as easily as a potter can reshape a disfigured lump of clay into a beautiful vase, so can God transform our life into the masterpiece He creates us to be!