Nothing is wasted with God….”Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand”

Today at Holy Mass we hear the story of Joseph in the first reading from the Old Testament…Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers because he was his father’s favorite…As fate would have it, Joseph became a powerful man and when a famine took its toll on the land, his brothers needed Joseph’s help…Joseph did not hold a grudge and forgave his brother’s for the crime they committed against him…He realized that God had a purpose for him being in the position he was currently in…This is what he told his brothers when they came to him for help…..”I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt. But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you”……Joseph endured the bondage of slavery and it did not make him bitter…Instead he became a wise leader who saw the big picture….Do we see the big picture?…Do we view everything we have endured in this life as “building blocks”, which made us who we are today?

“They had weighed him down with fetters, and he was bound with chains, Till his prediction came to pass and the word of the LORD proved him true”

If you are to look at what countries in the world have the highest levels of depression, you may be surprised to see the United States, which as we all know is a wealthy country close to the top of the list…How can a country that has so much have so many people in it that are depressed?…It all comes down to your world view…..God created us to be sanctified and many factors play into that process…That includes our failures and disappointments….Joseph in our first reading today from Mass became a powerful man but before he did, he had to endure being sold into slavery by his brothers…..Joseph saw the big picture and knew that the time he was a slave was to prepared him to be the leader he eventually became under Egyptian rule in his service to Pharaoh…..The same goes for us…..God is in the process of sanctifying us….He does that through the our participation in the Sacramental life, through daily prayer, through fasting…He also does this through the events of our life, both good and bad…The goal of every human life SHOULD be to cooperate with God and allow him to form us into who we were born to be - A holy people….And unfortunately failures and disappointments in our life are apart of that process…Its all how you look at it….If we fixate on our failures and disappointments, we become bitter…But if we view them as a “tool” to be used…We become better…..Maybe this is why the levels of depression in the United States are so high?….Maybe our people are not viewing life through the correct lens?…Maybe we are measuring our life’s achievements by a standard’s of the world, the flesh and the devil?……God has a plan for each of us…That plan is to make us holy…That should be our goal, to become a holy people…..Once we “digest” that reality…Life becomes so much sweeter…Even our failures and disappointments seem to make more sense…..This only happens if we cooperate with God….The alternative to cooperation is what we see in the high levels of depression and suicide, which currently grip America…..The Prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament tells us this…”Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done?—oracle of the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel”…..Trust in God’s plan for your life - He is the master builder - Allow him to work!….The “finished product” will amaze you, but for that to happen, we need to cooperate with him.

“When the LORD called down a famine on the land and ruined the crop that sustained them, He sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave”

The story of Joseph in the first reading from Mass is a story of a man who went from rags to riches…Joseph became a wise leader because he saw the big picture…He saw how God formed him and he also realized why he was given his position of power….”It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you”…..God’s plan for salvation of the human race is still at work in the world today and each of us has a small role in it….For us to “do our part” we must cooperate with God….And if we do, the ordinary aspects of life will become extraordinary….Nothing is wasted with God….”Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand”