Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Sometimes, I think, it’s easy to forget how awesome, almighty and mysterious God is. At least I know that I don’t reflect on that on a day-to-day basis as I’m living my life taking care of the kids, keeping the household running, following up on doctors’ appointments and other responsibilities, trying to fit in exercise and maintaining contact with friends and extended family. I try to pray on a daily basis beyond our daily dinner and bedtime prayers with the kids; I certainly take my worries and troubles to God. And I think of my relationship with Jesus as a pretty good one that has, thankfully, been formed in a church and family that emphasized the forgiveness of God, the gentleness, the loving kindness. And I do believe that is a good thing.
Today’s readings, however, got me thinking more about the power of God, the awesomeness of God, the mystery of God and how we, as human beings, are not all that we seem to like to think we are. Ultimately, it is God who is in control, and I do think we’re really better off that way.
Take, for example, the first reading (Jeremiah 18: 1-6) in which the analogy of God as the potter is used to remind the people of Israel, through the prophet Jeremiah, that they are really no more than clay in the potter’s hand. If the potter is dissatisfied with how his creation has turned out, he can try again making another object out of the clay. The Lord, the “potter”, can destroy or restore the house of Israel according to their actions. God is almighty, God is the creator, and God is the judge.
In a similar way, in the gospel reading (Matthew 13: 47-53) Jesus uses parables to explain the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. In doing so, he reveals that just as fishermen will bring in a great catch of fish in their nets and then separate the good from the bad, so will the angels in God’s kingdom separate the wicked from the righteous. Here, again, we see the power and awesome judgment of God.
It is not a pleasant image, and perhaps that is why I don’t spend much time reflecting on it, but I am challenged to realize the importance of getting the whole picture of God, as best as we can, in all of God’s mystery and awesomeness, and I find some comfort in that. After all, we’re talking about a God who has created the universe, given breath to every living thing, and who has the power to overcome death and evil. Then shouldn’t we, at least periodically, stand in awe of this God and not take for granted the love and life, and, yes, forgiveness that has been given to us?
May we appreciate the Potter and humbly be reminded that we are the work of God’s hands. Let us place our lives in God’s hands and allow ourselves to be molded and fashioned into the people that God has intended us to be.
-Eileen Miller