40 Crosses for 40 Days: 16th Cross - The Painted Clay Cross

The Mass readings today all emphasize the same theme - that of reconciliation, restoration and renewal. This reconciliation, restoration and renewal is not our own doing. It is the work of the Trinity, and we are invited to participate in it so that we are remade, because God says "Behold, I am doing something new." (Is 43:19).

That's why the cross for today is the Painted Clay cross. It was made by a child and was entirely her own idea. She worked on it for hours, designing it, shaping it, making it into what she had originally envisioned. After getting the shape right, she told me, she baked it and finally painted it. She gave it to me as a gift, and I knew it had taken her lots of work. I loved it then, and I still do. She took some plain, ordinary clay, and with an image in mind, worked on it until it was something completely new, something she could give me as a gift.

Just as my young friend had made something new with a bunch of plain clay, so God does with us when we allow Him to. Everything from today's Collect before the readings to the Gospel to the Prayer over the Offerings rejoices in God's ability to restore and renew, to take something old, tired and beaten up and transform it into a work of art.

The Collect says:
O God, who grant us by glorious healing remedies while on earth,
to be partakers of the things of heaven, guide us, we pray, through this present life
and bring us to the light in which you dwell.

The Prayer Over the Offerings reads:
Through these sacred gifts, O Lord,
may our redemption yield its fruits, restraining us from unruly desires,
leading us onward to the gifts of salvation.

The Gospel is the much loved and well-known Parable of the Prodigal Son. The Collect, the Prayer Over the Offerings and especially the Parable of the Prodigal Son all proclaim God's ability to restore, to reconcile, and to renew. God is able to do what we can't. God the Father can welcome home His wayward children, who have acted as if He is dead and squandered their inheritance. Not only can God the Son go into the desert for 40 days and rebuke the devil three times, but He can also suffer an excruciating death and forgive the perpetrators as He is dying. God the Holy Spirit can inspire and guide us to do the same thing, to respond to difficult situations with a superabundance of grace, with the life of the Trinity.

"May our redemption yield its fruits, restraining us from unruly desires, leading us onward to the gifts of salvation."       -Prayer Over the Offering March 2nd

This Lent let's imagine we are pieces of clay and allow God to mold us, to help us do the hard work of stretching and changing, so that we can move closer to being the people He created us to be.

Let us pray: Holy Trinity, help us remember that we are traveling with You through the desert in order to die to our old life and rise to a new one, so that we can be reconciled, restored and remade. Assist us in seeing where we need to tighten up and where we need to let go, so that we can become the creations You originally imagined. And in all things, let us praise you. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

The Strawberry Vine - Cultivating a Catholic Imagination