Like the clay that yields to the potter’s hands to be reshaped and fashioned for his purpose, the Lord longed to restore Jerusalem to Himself.
In today’s first reading, God promised that in restoring Jerusalem, there will be a sudden urge from among the nations desiring to go up to Jerusalem to seek the Lord of Hosts there. The concluding part of the reading, is quite interesting, it says,
Thus says the LORD of hosts:
In those days ten men of nations of every language, will take a Jew by the sleeve and say, ‘We want to go with you since God is with you.”
This intention of God came to fulfillment the person of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He is Immanuel, God with us. He was the stone rejected by the elders that became the Keystone. He was regarded as a sign of contradiction by men but eventually became the sign of reconciliation between God and men. By his death and burial, He was made an outcast by his own people but he became at the end the prince of peace and source of peace and joy that brought many nations and pilgrims into Jerusalem till this present day.
In today’s Gospel, when the Samaritans rejected Jesus because his eyes were set for Jerusalem, the brothers James and John were angry and requested that they might be permitted to call down fire from heaven above to burn them up but Christ rebuked them. His purpose is to save and not to condemn.
We recall, at the Garden of Gethsemane, when our Lord was arrested and Peter caught off the ear of one of the official’s servant, the condemned ear was healed by Christ, His purpose was to save and not to condemn. To heal our wounds and not to break us down.
John Mary Vianney once said, ‘everything is a reminder of the cross. we ourselves were made in the shape of a cross.’ We have been formed in the image and likeness of God, He is the potter we are the clay and in shaping us, we will be tried, tested and entrusted with spirit of perservance to stand the test of time. It is our endurance, faith, hope and charity that will win us the crown of eternal life. If Christ our Savior was rejected then why are we worried about the rejection of men. It is better to enjoy your peace of mind by walking away rather than dwell with fake people. Remember, fake people are like soap bubbles they pop out when the sun shines brightly. Chiranjude Bird
1 Corinthians 15:33-34 tells us, Do not be fooled. “Bad companions ruin good character.”
On the way of the cross, Jesus told the women weeping, “ Do not weep for me but for yourselves and for your children? Do we believe in the suffering of Christ and all that he teaches? If you believe what you like in the Gospels and reject what you do not like it is not the Gospel you believe in yourself-St. Augustine.
