Treasure in vessels of clay

The expression comes from St. Paul's second letter to the Corinthians (4,7). It reminds us all that we, particularly those gifted with special graces and charism, have a God-given treasure kept in delicate containers, that is, ourselves in all our weak and fragile condition.

Therefore we need to be careful about this predicament. This means we always have to be with God who gives us the strength that we need to be faithful and generous with his gift to us. On our own, this gift will be wasted. We have to struggle always to be with him, since we tend to separate ourselves from him. And with him, despite all the trials, we can survive.

The complete passage goes this way: “We have this treasure in vessels of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (7-9)

These words of St. Paul become relevant today as we hear the news that in the US, an estimated 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children since the 1940s, according to a grand jury report that accused senior church officials of systematically covering up complaints.

We need to realize that the higher, greater, or more special God's gift to us, the more responsible, more watchful, more prudent we ought to be in keeping it. We have to remind ourselves that no matter how confident we are of our strength, physical, moral, or spiritual, we still have feet of clay.

In the Book of Daniel, we are told of a statue whose head was made of gold, its breast and arms silver, its belly and thighs brass, its legs iron. All impressive! But its feet were, sadly, part iron and part clay. (cfr 2,32-33)

It took only one small stone striking its feet to bring the whole statue down. It's an image of how we are - we can be majestic in many aspects, but always have feet of clay, our Achilles' heel.

We should always be on guard, distancing ourselves from temptations and occasions of sins, purifying our intentions always so as to ward off unwelcome thoughts and desires, ever developing an authentic spirit of penance to cleanse and strengthen ourselves as we go through life.

We need to realize that the higher, greater, or more special God's gift is, the more attractive we would be to his enemies. We would become a favorite target of the many demons around. They will do everything to bring us down.

We need to remember that the only way to handle this predicament is to be with Christ. This means that like Christ and with Christ, we should be willing to suffer and to die, that is, to die to our sins and weaknesses so that we can also resurrect with him, so we can have the final victory.

St. Paul explains it this way: “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to the death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.” (2 Cor 4,10-11)

We all need to understand these words well, internalizing and assimilating them into our system!