Reflections from the Heart – April 16, 2023

Divine Mercy Sunday
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“I was hard pressed and was falling, but the LORD helped me.”  Scriptural images are most helpful to us and enable us to see, identify with, and more readily understand our relationship with God.  They provide us with an opportunity to consider how we respond and determine if our responses, whether in thought, feeling, action, words, desires or deeds, properly correspond in right relationship as the relationship was created and designed to be.  For example, the image of God as a nurturing caring parent, a faithful spouse, a divine healer and physician or the Good Shepherd or Samaritan.  Do we respond as beloved children who attentively listen and remain lovingly obedient?  Are we faithful in fidelity to our baptismal covenant and wedding vows? Do we give God permission to heal us from the effects of our sinfulness or provide the remedy for moments we were unkind or lacked charity? One of the scriptural images that may challenge us in our view of right relationship with God is the image of the potter and the clay.  What is helpful to note is that the clay belongs to the potter and that the potter does all the work.  The clay must remain open, vulnerable, flexible, trusting that God as the Potter will make the clay into something or someone that is worthwhile, most needed, helpful, useful, functional, productive, valuable, beautiful, priceless, unique, one-of-a-kind, good and awesome. God provides all the tools.  He has all the necessary supplies.  He has the vision, the mission, the strategy, the objective. It is his idea.  He created it.  He creates the purpose, the need and the desired outcome.  He formulates the plan and does all the work. God does not need to know how to do something correctly. God is perfect.  God does not need us to remind him how to do something or when to do something.  God is faithful, reliable and can be trusted.  God does not need input on how to create you. God has done this before many times and is the best at it.  No one can create like God, that is, out of nothing. Trust that God has this.  God truly cares for you, wills your happiness and desires what is best for you.  Trust that God knows what he is doing.  Remind yourself of that.  Have faith and confidence in God.  Everything he makes is very good. He made you. You belong to him. Let him chisel away what is not helpful or useful and make you beautiful again, his masterpiece. Jesus, I trust in you.