17th Week, Thursday
Jeremiah 18:1-6 / Matthew 13:47-53
We are clay in God's hands; He fashions us like a potter.
Rembrandt was a 17th-century Dutch painter. He is still regarded as one of the world's greatest artists. Rembrandt's wife, Saskia, died in the midst of his career. Following her death, he went into a period of deep mourning, in which he didn't paint at all. Eventually, he resumed painting again. When he did, he painted with new power and passion. Some critics suggest that the death of his wife was a turning point in his career. It transformed him into an outstanding artist. Rembrandt's story illustrates how God can use tragedy to fashion us into something better than we originally were.
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Do we believe God wants to make something beautiful of us? "It is by those who suffer that the world has been advanced." Leo Tolstoy
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When a ceramic or clay vessel is broken, it is of no use whatsoever. It ceases to be what it is made for and the only thing left to do is to discard it. But when it is first shaped and made, it was meant to be of service and to be used for what it is used for.
It is like what we read in the 1st reading, the potter shapes the clay into the required shape and heat it at high temperatures that lead to permanent changes including increasing its strength and hardening and setting its shape. But just as in the turns and tumbles of life, clay vessels get cracked and broken and they are rendered useless and hence discarded.
The gospel parable also talks about discarding the catch of fish that are of no use. But that is the imagery of the end of time.
Meanwhile, what is there for those people who are cracked and broken? We must remember that Jesus came for them. He came for sinners.
The Japanese have a centuries-old art of fixing broken pottery with a special lacquer of powdered gold, silver or platinum. The cracks or breaks are seamed together beautifully with the lacquer, giving the once cracked and broken pottery a special and unique appearance. We can learn something from that. And then we can understand why Jesus is called Saviour.
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Jeremiah looks at the work of a potter. If the potter sees his work is misshapen, he destroys it and tries anew. God’s people are clay in God’s hands. If they are not faithful, God will break them, but when they are converted, he tries again with them and they become precious.
The parable about the net full of fish, good and bad, is very close to the parable heard a few days ago about the wheat and the weeds. It ends with the statement that the scribe in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. Jesus came “not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to complete them.” Therefore the disciple, when he welcomes what is new, does not reject what is old. He treasures both.
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Opening Prayer
Faithful God of tenderness and mercy, you want us to be your people on the march with Jesus your Son toward the new future of justice and love of your kingdom. Do not allow us to suffocate in being contented with old habits and sluggish ways. Help us to accept the pain of leaving the familiar behind us and open us to today’s challenge of the gospel to become more like your Son who guides our faltering steps, Jesus Christ our Lord.
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After the death of his father, his mother Maud was given in marriage by King Henry I to St David I, King of Scotland. Following his mother to Scotland, Waltheof formed an intimate friendship with St Aelred who was then master of the royal household there.
Deciding to be a religious, he left Scotland and joined the Canons of St Augustine at Nostell. Not long after he was made Prior of Kirham. But desirous of a stricter way of life, and encouraged by the advice of his friend Aelred, then Abbot of Rievaul, he joined the Cistercian monks. Within barely four years of his profession, he was chosen Abbot of Melrose. When, in 1154, he was nominated archbishop of Saint Andrews, he sought the help of St Aelred in declining the office.
St Waltheof died at an advanced age on 3 August 1160. Miracles at his tomb led to his incorrupt body being transferred to a new marble sarcophagus in 1171, and once again in 1240 to the east part of the chapter house.
