Night two of our annual parish Lenten Mission had the reading from Jeremiah about the clay and Potter. Clay has a beauty of its own. It can be shaped and formed and yet is its own substance. Clay can fall apart and be reshaped. Clay can resist it is not passive. God can and does recreate us in the midst of trials.
Bernadette talked about Jacob wrestling with God and planted the thought that some think he was really wrestling with his own identity and God named it Israel. Now Jacob is no longer a phony Esau or ashamed of who he is. Now God gives him a title and he can live fully into who he is as a leader. Later Fr. Larry would challenge us with a litany of questions about who names us, why do we allow that, what negative names are we known by, etc. He used his own example of being defined as a man who is blind rather than a blind man. Do we define ourselves by adjectives? He also asked what name does Jesus give you. I have to contemplate that one a wee bit and see but I do hear the echo from the story, The Tree That Survived the Winter: I am called Faithful.
Using the lilies of the field Scripture reference, Fr. Larry suggested that it is not always easy to depend on God. He encouraged us to reach for things that help you be who you are, letting your name as Child of God slowly be revealed to you. Jesus alone gives you a name that you can really live with and not hide from.
Bernadette added that Jesus met people where they would rather not be met—citing characters like Zacchaeus and the Samaritan woman. He named them and then he sent them. How many times has Jesus met you in a place where you would rather not be seen? I can think of a number of times this has happened to me.
I had a funny experience during the reflection questions. In the first one, I was to picture myself as how I respond to the Potter’s hands at this point in my life. I kept self-imploding. The Potter would begin to create a vessel and then it would collapse. This happened several times. It could be because of my own weariness that I could not sustain my shape but upon reflection it felt more like a refusal to be the vessel that God was trying to create. The next reflection question was regarding praying with the value that God has given me. As I closed my eyes to contemplate this, an image came to me of a magnificently shaped pot—the one from the first question that I refused to become. I must admit that its beauty took my breath away. Something inside of me longs to be that creation.
Before the closing ritual, Fr. Larry asked who have you helped God to create. I thought of a conversation earlier that day with someone when I talked about the number of people who have helped to shape me in this parish and spoke of the number of people who I have helped to use their gifts there because of my own experience of being welcomed and called. I felt affirmed as a co-creator.
The ritual tonight had to do with lighting a candle—I suppose to illustrate dependency, as seen in tonight’s quote. We were to light our taper candles and say aloud, “ Let me be filled with your Light and shine.” I do want to be filled with the Light of God and shine brightly for all to see. As my flame feels slightly diminished, I pray that it can be fanned into a light that attracts many to the one Light who conquers the darkness.
Peace,
Suzanne
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