The Holy Prophet Amos; Venerable Jerome, Presbyter of Stridonium.
Apostle’s Fast.
Romans 9:18-33; Matthew 11:2-15
Read Romans 9:18-33
One of the most challenging parts about instructing catechumens and people who come inquiring about the Church is answering the question – why do some people turn to God and others do not? It’s a difficult question because, behind it are usually unstated concerns about dear friends and family members who have either stopped practicing their faith or show little interest in the things of God.
In response to similar questions, St. Paul asks rhetorically: “But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me thus?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?”
St. Paul’s point here is not to dismiss the question, but to reframe it within its proper context: namely that all the things we experience are ordered within the providential plan of God. The image of clay in the hands of a potter is not meant to do away with the notion of free will, says St. John Chrysostom, “but rather to show to what extent we ought to obey God. We should be as little inclined to call God to account as a piece of clay is. We ought to abstain not only from complaining or questioning but from even speaking or thinking about it at all, and instead we should become like that lifeless matter which follows the potter’s hands and lets itself be shaped in whatever way the potter wills.” (Homily 16 on Romans)
The usual way the potter’s will is made known to us is in the concrete circumstances we encounter in our daily lives, something the 18th century spiritual writer Jean-Pierre De Caussade called “the sacrament of the present moment”. Whether these circumstances are positively willed, or simply permitted – they are the principal means we have of being drawn towards Christ.
For in encountering Christ, getting back to St. Paul in today’s reading, all hearts are revealed for what they are. The humility of the humble and penitent is manifested and rewarded, and the pride of the arrogant and impenitent is judged. The humble sinners—the tax-collectors and prostitutes— come to Jesus in repentance, and the proud would reject Him. Christ was appointed therefore “for the fall and rise of many in Israel, that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34, 35).
God wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of truth – we just have to learn to trust his providence, that what is given to us, is given for our salvation in order to heal our prideful hearts and bring us back to him. May God grant us this grace!