To be happy and grow, stop disguising and pretending. Instead, admit you are God’s clay, so trust and let Him transform you ….
According to Vatican Radio, Pope Francis stressed this during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta.
Drawing inspiration from today’s readings, the Holy Father focused on the Second Letter to the Corinthians, where St. Paul speaks about the mystery of Christ. In it, the Apostle, says we have this treasure of Christ in our fragility and vulnerability because we are vessels made of clay.
To be saved and healed by God, the Pope said, we must recognize that we are weak, vulnerable and sinful.
All Are Vulnerable, Weak
“All of us,” the Holy Father stressed, “are vulnerable, fragile, weak, and we need to be healed.”
However, he acknowledged, admitting we are vulnerable is difficult, which is why, Francis observed, sometimes we try to “disguise it with cosmetics, pretending it does not exist.”
Stressing disguises are always shameful, the Pope said, “they are hypocrisy.”
We are also hypocritical within ourselves, the Pope pointed out, when we believe “to be something else,” without needing healing and support.
This, the Pope pointed out, is the path to vanity, pride and self-reference «of those who do not feel themselves made of clay» and instead «seek salvation and fulfillment in themselves.»
Accept, Embrace Being His Clay
But St. Paul says, Francis reminded, it is God’s power that saves us in our vulnerability.
«Hence, we are troubled but not crushed; we are shaken but not desperate; we are persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not killed. There is always this relationship between clay and power, clay and treasure.”
“But the temptation,” the Pope said, “is always the same: to cover, conceal and not believing we are made of clay.”
This, Francis stressed, is hypocrisy towards ourselves.
When we accept our weakness, the Pope encouraged, God comes with His salvation and happiness.
In this regard, Pope Francis spoke about confession where we confess our sins in a way, where we “whitewash the clay a bit,” in order to appear strong.
We must accept, Francis advised, our weakness and vulnerability, even if it is “difficult” to do so. “It is shame that broadens the heart to allow the power of God in – the shame of being clay and not a silver or gold vase,» he said.
«When Peter objected to Jesus washing his feet,» the Jesuit Pope reminded, «he did not realize he was made of clay, needing the Lord’s power to be saved.”
Pope Francis concluded, saying, “It’s only when we accept we are made of clay that the extraordinary power of God will come and give us the fullness, salvation, happiness and joy of being saved, thus receiving the Lord’s ‘treasure.’
