God told the prophet Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house and wait there for inspiration. When Jeremiah reached the potter’s house, he observed that sometimes the potter would give up on what he was working on, and because the clay was still plastic, he could use the same lump of clay for a new project. Then God said to him: “Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel” (Jer 18:6).
My friends, as long as we are on this earth, we are being shaped and formed and reformed, like clay. Some things are being added to us and some things are being taken away. Our task is not to harden ourselves, but to trust the judgment of our maker. “Woe to anyone who contends with their Maker; a potsherd among potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ or, ‘What you are making has no handles’” (Isa 45:9)?
If we start to become stiff and lose our plasticity, then we must ask for water to be added, and this must be, principally, the holy water of baptism, but it can also be the holy water we find in any church, and it can also be the holy gift of tears, the gift prized so highly by St. Ignatius.