Plasticity

Greetings on this the Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: JER 18:1-6; PS 146:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6AB; MT 13:47-53
Notes: In the general sciences and in medical science, including psychology, the term plasticity has a very important meaning.

In short, the ability to adapt and change.

The first reading and the gospel reading share the same message.

Your plasticity is a gift from the Lord to redirect and realign one’s ways (righteousness) regardless of the mistakes of the past. The Kingdom of Heaven is here. One of the gifts of the Kingdom is plasticity and with plasticity, the divine aid to grow.

First reading
In the first reading today, the reading that the Lord can change and remold a person anyway He wishes is a particular way of describing the gift of freedom and of the divine concern for you. It is not a description of your helplessness in the hands of a foreign power. It is the plasticity or freedom to find a good path forward, even after making such terrible mistakes.

Said another way: God is not limited by our mistakes. We have the plasticity to learn, adapt and change per the divine plan for us.

Can I not do to you, house of Israel,
as this potter has done? says the LORD.
Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,
so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

Responsorial Psalm
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

Alleluia Verse
Open our heart, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.

Gospel Portion
Jesus said to the disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.

The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

It is for the Angels to decide when the opposite of plasticity is present.

The opposite: (Eek!)

• hardness
• roughness
• harshness
• bias
• discrimination
• acrimony
• bitterness
• rage
• anger
• bitterness
• animosity
• resentment
• grimness
• strictness
• severity
• sternness
• austerity
• discourtesy
• bloodlust
• grouchiness

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry