Like a potter, God shapes us by his very own hands. Patient and loving, he is willing to reshape us when we go astray. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.
Readings for Thursday of week 17 of ordinary time can be found here.
My dear late mother had many gifts, but being good at knitting was not one of them. She told the story of how, before I was born, she tried knitting something for my older brother. Sitting in front of the open fire in her mother’s living room, mum dropped a few stitches and got into a bit of a tangle. In a fit of frustration, she threw the whole lot – knitting needles and all – into the fire! When my dad said “oh I expect my mum could have sorted that out” he was not popular! Have you ever had a moment of frustration like that, trying to do or make something and it just won’t work? And so you feel like throwing it away and giving up.
This is not the attitude of the potter whom Jeremiah visits in our first reading today. The pot he is working from clay on his wheel goes wrong, so he patiently reworks it into another vessel. He doesn’t give up at the first sign of difficulty, and all is not lost. God then likens himself to the potter, and Israel, his people to the clay. Israel has been rebellious for many centuries, continually falling out of shape like a wobbly piece of clay. And yet God promises never to give up on his people, and says that just like the potter he will remould Israel back into his own image.
In the Gospel reading we have another image of God’s patience with his people. The kingdom of God is compared to a net which gathers in fish of all kinds. God’s kingdom, and God’s world, as we know, is full of all sorts of folks – with plenty of misshapen pots and scraggly pieces of knitting included. Judgement, we are told, comes at the end of the age, only when all have had the chance to turn to God and follow his ways.
God does not require us to be perfect vessels. Aware of this, may we always refrain from passing judgement on other fish who are in the net alongside us. All he asks of us is that we are willing to be held in his hands, the loving potter, who desires and promises to continually reshape us more and more into his likeness.
Mass today is in St Dyfrig & St Samson at 10am.
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