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God Will Bring Life and Growth If We Prepare the Ground

Written by

Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.

in

Heb 10:32-29 / Mk 4:26-34

Walking down any street or sitting on a bench watching the people go by, we cannot help being amazed at the endless diversity of the human race of which each of us is but a tiny part.  At this very moment, there are billions of individual human beings alive on this planet, each one unique and like no other, each one a potential masterpiece in the making.

Will each one in fact become that masterpiece? Sad but true, the answer is no. In far too many of us, much or even most of the growth and prospering that was possible and that God fully intended for us will never come to be. That tragedy will surely come to be if we have not prepared the soil for the garden that God wants to plant in us.

How do we avoid that tragedy and make that all-important preparation?  We learn to be quiet and to listen to the whispering of the Spirit in the life around us and within us.  Like clay in the potter’s hands, we make ourselves available to being reshaped and changed by the Spirit.  But before any of that can happen, a confident, expectant trust in the Spirit must envelop our soul.

God will bring life and growth if we prepare the ground of our soul to receive it.  So trust him and get to work; there’s not a moment to lose.

Comments

2 responses to “God Will Bring Life and Growth If We Prepare the Ground”

  1. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    I really like Fr. Clark’s way of puting things. He is so direct and simple…gets the core. The image of submiting myself to The Holy Spirit as clay to the potter’s hand is so beautiful an image. It captures so well what is needed: my openess and readiness to be molded by the Spirit. Arriving at a willingness and even a yearning to let go of myself and to be changed was the end of many hard lessons learned in life. I finally realized, by the work of the Spirit amidst my adversities and failures,that our faith is not just something I believe in, but something I must become. I must become a new being, a new person in Christ and by Christ. And that realization changed everything for me : it is not”about me” but about me changing and becoming a vessel of the Holy Spirit. It is about my transformation and my on-going deepening conversion each day. And this too is the work of the Potter! I do trust Him! Because I do know Him as keenly active in my life. He has led me out of my darkness and showing me His light. Thanks to God Almighty.

  2. ncgolf Avatar
    ncgolf

    The image of the clay is good … the clay must be soft, moist and pliable. The “harden not your hearts” is apt here for if the clay is “hard” it cannot be molded, the potter can do nothing. We need to use the sacraments to keep us pliable, from becoming hardened.

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