God's work of art

Here in the UK, this Sunday brings together two lovely celebrations. Firstly, it's Laetare Sunday: that midpoint in Lent when we are invited to rejoice, the Gospel reminds us of the immensity of God's love, and the second reading speaks only of grace and goodness and mercy. And today is also, by long tradition, Mothering Sunday, which in the Middle Ages became a day for visiting and honouring one's 'mother church', which was usually also the place of one's baptism. Nowadays, this day lives on as Mother's Day - more secular, yes; but certainly a day for celebrating love, and the gift of life!

Today, I'll be gathering with other sisters, to discuss and reflect as we journey towards our General Chapter this summer, and whatever lies beyond it. I've been preparing our opening prayer, and would like to share something of it here. It begins with the final verse of today's second reading: We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning God had meant us to live it. (Eph 2: 10) 

And with this, an invitation to give thanks for the women who gave us the gift of life, and for the people who mothered and nurtured us in our early years. Followed by an invitation to return, in prayer, to our ‘mother church’, giving thanks for our Godparents, and for the people - family, teachers, parish community and others - from whom we learned about God, love and prayer... And for all the people who have helped us become the women and men we now are.

And we give thanks, too, for being loved, with all our woundedness and scars, our limitations and need for healing... And for our call, to discover and make God’s love known, in ourselves, our local community, our country, and throughout our world, with all its brokenness and blessedness. 

In praying with this, the image which came to me was of a bowl repaired with kintsugi, the Japanese craft which uses lacqueur dusted with powdered gold to restore broken ceramic and pottery. Rather than attempting to mask what is broken, kintsugi highlights and honours it with gold, turning flaws into beauty; fractures into works of art. Rather like this previously unmarked little dish, which has - for me, at least - developed not blemishes, but its own charm and character over the last few years... even without the enhancement of gold.

We too experience our own restoration, and the transformation of our wounds and our weaknesses. We too are loved back into wholeness, and into greater loveliness, and invited to cooperate in this. Yes... we are indeed God's work of art, created, continuously, in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning God had meant us to live it.

What work of art are you being called to co-create with God…?