All cracked up

There is a story that I love involving a monk at a very strict monastery. The monks are only allowed to say two words a year. One monk, newly professed, goes into the office of the Abbot to speak his two words. He sits in a chair across from the abbot and states, "bed hard." A year later the same monk is before the Abbot, "food bad." The following year we find the Abbot and monk together for their meeting. "I quit." "It's no wonder," says the Abbot, "You've been complaining ever since you got here." In the his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul compares us to earthen vessels. I like to think of those old clay flower pots that were chipped and cracked. Paul recognizes that despite our flawed state of being the presence of Christ dwells within us. We hold a treasure deep inside of us which is God's Spirit. This is important for us to contemplate as we draw close to baptism and shortly thereafter the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Most of us would live our lives differently if we realized the sacredness we possessed. Saint Catherine of Siena reminds us, "If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire." Remember the old recruiting slogan for the Army, "Be all that you can be." While recognizing our own sins and foibles, we rely on the grace and love of God, through Jesus Christ, to overcome our weaknesses and live as disciples of Christ. To be sure this season of prayer, fasting, and alms giving, is a foundation towards conversion and discipleship. God's grace moves us away from sin and temptation so that we might live the reality of our of lives made in the image and likeness of God. Sin and Evil move us away from the people we ought to be. God's spirit, love, and mercy, helps us to be kindly, gentle, prophetic, and grace-filled people. St. Paul speaks so often about the pain he suffers in proclaiming Christ. Yet he acknowledges that by embracing this same suffering and dying to oneself, that he is better able to articulate the word of God. Not unlike the cracked flower pot God plants a beautiful flower inside of us. We should pay attention to the flowers and not the cracks.