Thursday of Week 17 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Jeremiah 18:1-6 | Psalm 145:2-6 | Matthew 13:47-53
In today’s reading, Jeremiah gets an object lesson in God-as-potter, forming and reforming the House of Israel through the years.
Indeed, God is a mighty potter, and I have felt His hand at work in my life. Specifically, when this “pot” started sagging to one side through sin and neglect of spiritual life, God “smushed” me through a horrific accident and began forming me anew.
But even the finest raw pot is soft and moist, and can still be mangled by undesirable influences. That’s why pottery needs to be fired in a kiln to dry, harden, and set its shape permanently.
Similarly, until I accepted the “firing” of the Holy Spirit, everything I’d learned about Catholicism was just book knowledge, and I was without conviction and strength of faith. All that changed when I wrote my first reflection on this blog before Holy Week began, a dare to myself to write something, anything about what I believed. Slowly, I unconsciously let the Holy Spirit “raise my core temperature”, writing a few more entries during Holy Week, then began a daily blogging run that continues to this day.
You could say that I’m now on fire with the Holy Spirit, and taking the time to do the 3 R’s (Read, Research, Reflect) on the daily Word of God has at least “hardened” my faith to the point that I will not turn away from any opportunity to discuss it with well-intentioned inquirers. If it is God’s will, I’ll continue this journey till the day I’m no longer physically or mentally able, at which point I fervently hope that the heart of me, on fire with the Holy Spirit, will still quietly sing God’s praises to my dying day.
It would be a fitting end for this lump of clay.
Amen.