Is he not the carpenter’s son?

1 AUGUST (Mt 13,54-58)

Every man, called and sent to do the things concerning God on our earth, is very in all similar to a mere clay pot. Clay is clay. Humanity is more fragile than clay. It is the nothing of nothing. Yet this clay and this human smallness and insignificance is invested by God to be his container. This clay is coated with a noble mission: it must bring its God, because it is its God the one who saves, redeems, justifies, renews the heart, sanctifies them and raises them up to Heaven.

Clay always remains clay. There is no more noble clay and less noble clay. But when the clay lets itself be modelled by its divine Artificer, it is then that it receives a new form, new texture, new use, new operational force and new vocation. But clay is not the one that gives itself all these things, the Lord is its perennial Maker. He is the one that prepares the clay for the use that he, in his eternal and divine wisdom has set for it. Who then is the missionary of God? He is clay in the hands of its God, who day-to-day models it according to the use he wants to make of it.

Everything is from God. Nothing is from the earth. The earth is used by the Lord to provide him with clay. Then He will be the one to give shape, truth, new essence, substance, mission, operational force and every other thing necessary for the use for which it was selected. This truth is hard to get into the hearts of men. These think according to the earth and see according to the earth. To them there is clay and clay. There is a noble and ignoble clay, strong and weak clay, rich and poor clay and royal and serf clay. That is how a man sees the clay that is in front of him. He lacks in a true vision of faith.

We notice this lack of true vision of faith also before the clay that is Jesus in his humanity. The inhabitants of Nazareth see this poor, wretched, weak and fragile clay, they see it especially non regal, non noble and of non high lineage. His human origin is the small, modest, poor, wretched family of Joseph and Mary, a humble house, like all the others, rather more humble than the others. Might the Messiah of the Lord ever be born from such a poor, little and humble land, without any human power? Might the one who is to shepherd the people of God ever come out? For these people the greatness stems from the greatness, the majesty of kingship, power from power. It is obvious that theirs is not a thought of most pure faith.

He came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his native place and in his own house.” And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

These inhabitants of Nazareth should have known that Abraham, their father in faith, was a poor wanderer, a pilgrim, one with no land. Moses was a poor keeper of sheep, and not even his own, because they belonged to Jethro. David was a very humble shepherd. Amos collected Sycamores. All the great ones of their tradition were small, “vile” clay without history. God came with power in their lives and made them noble vessels to carry him on our history. This is the reality of their tradition, these are the roots of their people. They are a people made solely by their God. Even they themselves were slaves in Egypt, enslaved to a cruel bondage. God is the one that made them a noble, royal, priestly and free people. But when I forget that I am the purest exclusive work of God, when I make myself alone, when I forget my roots, which are the foundation of my history, it is a sign that I live a very superficial faith. Rather I do not live at all of faith, since it no longer rules my life. Wisdom, miracles and power do not come from the flesh and from the family. It comes only from the Lord. The Lord gives the shape to the clay. The Lord gives the content in the clay pot. It is the Lord the who makes and who fills it.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us a true vision of faith.