The Potter and the Clay

Today's first reading talks about how God is like a potter, and Israel like the clay.  How apt a metaphor for the soul's conversion!  We are shaped by the Hands of divine Providence, He forms us, sculpts us, into images more beautiful than the Pieta, vessels into which He will pour His own Spirit through His own Sacred Blood.  We will not enjoy the shaping, indeed, we will often fight it, hardening ourselves against Him into flawed vessels that cannot withstand the flame of the kiln.  We surely will not enjoy the firing, when all flaws and impurities are purged, when we are completed as His work, which means we must also admit we are not our own.  Yet if we persevere and do not harden our hearts to Him, we will be made most beautiful, most holy, most wonderful.