Readings
Jeremiah 18:1-6
Matthew 13:47-53
Reflection
Last year I had the chance to visit Girraween National Park. A beautiful piece of unique country roughly 3 hrs west of Brisbane, Queensland. What makes Girraween distinct are the very large granite boulders that would have been spat out roughly 225 million years ago. The area could look like a giant’s toy rock playground, with boulders larger than houses perfectly placed on top of each other.
However, what struck me most about the geology was learning that what had formed these boulders most wasn’t through iron axes or force. But millions and millions of years of gentle wind and water blowing over and over the surface. The mighty seemingly unmoveable rock, carved by the gentle wind.
So often, we are haunted by ‘not enough-ness’. That lie we have to be perfect and flawless before God can use us. But in today’s first reading, as God tells Jeremiah that He is the potter and Israel the clay, this lie is flipped.
It is God who goes into the mud and dirt and forms the clay intimately in his hands. In fact, the clay’s only work is its willingness to surrender and be moulded to his will. Sometimes my heart feels like a stubborn rock, but just like the Girraween boulders, God’s loving Holy Spirit carves away at me with infinite patience to his will.
Today, let us surrender more deeply to God’s will and watch as our hearts of stone turn to hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26)
Claire O’Donohue is a current Oxley Passionist Youth Retreat Team member. While also in her final year of university, she is completing her bachelor’s degree with a major in visual art and theology.