The Second Sunday of Lent, March 1 Homily

March 1, 2026

English

I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of working with clay before. When I was in college, a friend of mine took an elective on clay sculpture. Well, one Saturday I went up with her to the art building to use the pottery wheel for a project that was due Monday. While I was watching her, I thought, “How hard could it be?”, and I gave it a try. Let me tell you that if you’ve ever seen someone working at a pottery wheel, they make it look so easy. You see, if you don’t put enough pressure on the clay to shape it, nothing happens. However, it you put too much pressure on the clay, then it goes flying all over the place, and you have one heck of a mess on your hands. Both of these were personal experiences of mine.

Last Sunday we heard in our Scripture readings that “the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.” Indeed, we human beings are created from the dust of the earth by God, the master Potter. We are clay in His hands. And the Scriptures mention time and time again this truth. Take for example the Prophet Isaiah, who says, “Yet, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.” Or take our readings today. Abram is called by God to leave his homeland and travel to the land of Canaan, and we see God molding him into Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel. Then there are the 12, who are formed in Jesus’ Disciples by such experiences as the Transfiguration.

God the Father indeed is our Potter, the one who constantly desires to shape us into the image and likeness of Jesus, His Son. But, in order to shape clay into a vessel, you need a few things. First, you need a vision of what it is you want to design – a goal you’re working towards. And this is certainly true with our Father, who has a particular plan for each one of us, our vocation. He desires to form us, living blocks of clay, into His beautiful masterpieces.

But, you know, this leads to another requirement to be able to work with clay: it has to be soft. Obviously, if the clay isn’t soft enough, it won’t be pliable enough to mold. And I think you can see the same applies with respect to our relationship with God: if we don’t surrender to Him and allow our hearts to be vulnerable before Him, we don’t give Him much to work with. This is why we need to go to Confession, and experience the mercy of God, which causes our hearts to soften. Otherwise, our hearts become so hardened, even impenetrable at times, because of sin.

But even should we allow our hearts to get too hardened, God can still work with that clay too. It’s pretty neat, actually. I saw on Youtube how clay that has become rock hard, also become extremely brittle and breaks very easily. And even though it’s not workable in the least, the sculptor doesn’t throw the clay away. Instead he or she often breaks it into pieces, throwing them into a can filled with some water. And little by little, the dry clay soaks up the water, becoming soft enough to work with again. The same is true with God, our master Potter: He doesn’t throw away His living clay, saying it’s just too far gone! He will patiently wait for us to be ready for Him. Our experience of this though can be just like the potter, who breaks down the clay to prepare it for reconstitution. We can feel like God just allows us to be broken, and sometimes even fall into pieces. And we might wonder, “Why would He allow such things to happen to the living lumps of clay He loves so much?” But I believe this is in an effort to bring us to a place where we can again become soft enough and moldable and continue the process anew – to trust Him.

But there’s one last thing you need to work with clay, and that’s a kiln. The interesting thing about fire is that it can either destroy or transform. For example, fire can completely destroy a house. Or it can purify precious metals, and harden other materials, like clay. The fire of the kiln dries out the clay, but in such a way as to make it more sturdy and durable. A similar reality is true in our lives with respect to God our Potter. He allows us to be tested and to experience trial by fire in order to strengthen our virtuous character, to increase our resolve to follow Him, and to reinforce our faith in His undying love.

Yes, it’s easy to say all these things. And yes, it all sounds nice. But, it’s also very true too. God is our Potter, and we His clay. Sometimes we might want to be our own potters and mold ourselves as we prefer. But the problem is that we often don’t have the same vision – remember the Big Picture we talkedab out last week? And so, as we continue our journey through this season of Lent, we seek to make ourselves vulnerable before God – opening our hearts, our minds, our very lives to Him – all so that He can mold us and dwell within these beautiful, sacred vessels that we are. God bless you.