REPENTANCE MAKES US CLAY IN GOD'S HAND


MONDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Sirach 17:20-28; Ps 32:1-2,5-7; Mk 10:17-27

Becoming Clay in the Hand of the Potter

We turn to the first reading of the eighth Sunday in the Ordinary Time for the introduction of today’s reflection. There, Sirach refers to the work of a potter in preparing the clay for his work. The idea of clay, the material for his work, comes to mind in today’s passage. Our repentance restores our clay-ness and readies us for the work of God in us. What makes clay desirable to the potter is its plasticity. The nature of clay is lost when this quality is lost. The same holds for us. God cannot work with us when we lose the attitude of repentance. It is similar to when Jesus called his disciples salt and said salt is useless if it loses its saltiness. Sirach emphasised repentance as what would make us like clay in the hand of God, the Potter. “To those who repent, God permits return, and he encourages those who were losing hope. Return to the Lord and leave sin behind, plead before his face and lessen your offence. Come back to the Most High and turn away from iniquity, and hold in abhorrence all that is foul.” Our definition of sin is simply disobedience to the word of God. Thus, the meaning of repentance is a change from the attitude of disobedience to obedience to the word of God. This attitude returns to our hearts when we understand who God is for us.

We must consider that God is the source of our life and every good gift to acquire the spirit of repentance we need for the Lenten Season. Without the hand of God working in us, as the potter’s hand on the clay, we are of no use in life and death. Sirach implies the uselessness of the sinner in life and death when he says: “Who will praise the Most High in Sheol if the living do not do so by giving glory to him? To the dead, as to those who do not exist, praise is unknown, only those with life and health can praise the Lord.” The sinners cannot praise God in their state of living dead because they do not know him, nor do they live in the consciousness of his presence. They cannot praise him in death because God confines them to an eternal death that is the absence of his presence and will in their consciousness. Repentance removes this dead state in a soul and restores its plasticity in the hand of God. Repentance comes with acceptance of God’s grace, enabling us to see our state in the light of God’s word. Only the light of God reveals our miserable state to us and enables us to seek the mercy of God. As in the gospel, the grace of God prompted the man to know his need for eternal life and to run after Jesus Christ to enquire about it.

Without the grace of God drawing us in our sinful state, to seek life and light, we would be lost eternally. Thus, our Lord recognised that grace brought the man to seek eternal life with the Good master. “‘Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.’” These words of Jesus indicate he is guided to the divine in the Son of Man, even without being conscious of God’s hand guiding him. God never abandons us in our sinful state; he keeps sieving us of rubbish that blinds our eyes to his presence in and around us. In the case of the man in the gospel, his familiarity with the commandments already purified him to a degree and brought him to the feet of Jesus Christ for the perfection of spiritual life. Our Lord pointed out what is holding him from communion with God. “Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him, and he said, ‘There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’” As noted, the observance of the commandments has already brought him to a level of commitment to God. But because they cannot make us perfect, the commandments bring us to Christ, for whom we must give up everything to attain union with God. The keeping of the commandments must not make us think we have no sin; their role is to make us conscious of our sins and to look up to Jesus Christ for mercy and fullness of redemption. ‘‘'For men’ he said, ‘it is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God.’” Only repentance makes Jesus Christ relevant in our lives.

Let us pray: Grant us, O Lord, we pray, the grace to understand the uselessness of our works for our salvation, that we may truly repent of our sins and know our need for Jesus Christ and place ourselves in his company for eternal salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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