20260730 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
30 July 2026, Thursday, 17th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | Jeremiah 18:1-6 |
When the clay goes wrong, the potter starts afresh
The word that was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘Get up and make your way down to the potter’s house; there I shall let you hear what I have to say.’ So I went down to the potter’s house; and there he was, working at the wheel. And whenever the vessel he was making came out wrong, as happens with the clay handled by potters, he would start afresh and work it into another vessel, as potters do. Then this word of the Lord was addressed to me, ‘House of Israel, can not I do to you what this potter does? – it is the Lord who speaks. Yes, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so you are in mine, House of Israel.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 145(146):2-6 |
He is happy who is helped by Jacob’s God.
or
Alleluia!
My soul, give praise to the Lord.
I will praise the Lord all my days,
make music to my God while I live.
He is happy who is helped by Jacob’s God.
or
Alleluia!
Put no trust in princes,
In mortal men in whom there is no help.
Take their breath, they return to clay
and their plans that day come to nothing.
He is happy who is helped by Jacob’s God.
or
Alleluia!
He is happy who is helped by Jacob’s God,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who alone made heaven and earth,
the seas and all they contain.
He is happy who is helped by Jacob’s God.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation | Jn15:15 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 13:47-53 |
The fishermen collect the good fish and throw away those that are no use
Jesus said to the crowds: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that brings in a haul of all kinds. When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
‘Have you understood all this?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old.’
When Jesus had finished these parables he left the district.
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [JER 18:1-6; MT 13:47-53]
The parable of the dragnet tells us of the graciousness of God. All of us are welcomed into the Kingdom of God; it is not the sole prerogative of any single race or nation. As the Church, therefore, we welcome anyone who wishes to be a member. The Church is a community of both saints and sinners. It is inclusive, never exclusive, in accepting members. On the level of the Church, we do not discriminate between good and bad people. For those who are good Christians, we urge them to remain faithful to the Gospel. For those who are weak or unfaithful Christians, we continue to call them to repentance and to walk the life of grace. So, in the Church, we will always find a mixture of both good and bad Christians, like the dragnet of fish. We should not be surprised when we find that there are fellow Catholics who do not conduct themselves with charity and respect for God and for others. The Church is not a perfect community on earth.
This is why we should not be scandalised when there are sins and scandals in the community, since all of us are on the way to perfection in the spiritual life. So long as we are still on earth, God continues to give us grace to repent and change our lives. No one knows a person’s final outcome until the end. The truth is that good people can fall and become evil because of temptation and weakness. On the other hand, evil people, when given the grace of conversion, might be touched by God’s mercy, love, and enlightenment, changing their lives. We should not draw any conclusions about anyone’s ultimate destiny before the end comes.
However, we cannot take the grace of God for granted. God’s patience and kindness toward us must not be taken as a sign of weakness, because justice must be served; otherwise, God would contradict Himself as a just God. Hence, the parable of the dragnet serves to underscore that there is a time of separation and judgement: “When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end of time; the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” This separation is not the work of man, but the work of God. Only He can render true judgement and justice, because God does not merely judge our actions, but our motives and circumstances as well. Unlike earthly judges who penalise offenders strictly according to laws instituted by parliament, God’s judgement is of the heart and intention. But judgement at the end is inevitable.
Indeed, through the prophet Jeremiah, God shows His sovereignty in judging Judah. Jeremiah went to the potter’s house and observed what the potter did: “Whenever the vessel he was making came out wrong, as happens with the clay handled by potters, he would start afresh and work it into another vessel, as potters do. Then this word of the Lord was addressed to me, ‘House of Israel, cannot I do to you what this potter does? — it is the Lord who speaks. Yes, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so you are in mine, House of Israel.'”
Jeremiah’s visit to the potter was the way God chose to remind the people of His sovereignty. Like the potter who determines the shape of the clay as he sees fit, God as Creator has that same authority over all of creation and humanity. Just as the potter may form and reform the same clay, so God is always forming and reforming the House of Israel. God’s sovereign right over His people means that His judgement can be reversed or cancelled if a nation repents of its sins and walks in the ways of God. In the same vein, He can withdraw His goodness from His chosen people if they prove unfaithful to Him. But we must not misunderstand this as a capricious God who acts according to His whims and fancies. While God can do whatever He wants with us, He rules with justice and mercy.
His sovereignty is always tempered by His mercy and patience. When we do not repent, He punishes us for our sins — not out of anger, but out of a greater love for us. Like a loving father, God wants to discipline us. He does not give up on us easily when we go down the wrong path, just like the potter. He is a God of second chances. He does not reject us, but allows us to be recreated. God continues to be patient with His people until they are perfected in grace. He continues to supply the grace and opportunity for us to renew ourselves and be reformed in His love. His hope is that over the years we are refined into His beautiful vessel of love through the heat of trials that purify, rather than destroy, us.
We must, therefore, reckon with the sovereignty of God in His dealings with humanity. We must submit to His holy will and the laws He has instituted for creation and humanity so that we can all live in love and harmony. God reminded His people that, like the potter with his clay, His power is absolute (Rom 9:19-24). In our age, where individual freedom is overly emphasised, the doctrine of God’s sovereignty has largely been lost or rejected. It must be noted that when a pot does not turn out well, it is not because of the potter, but because of the inferior quality of the clay. In the same way, when we fall short, it is not because God failed to create us perfectly, but because we failed to cooperate with His grace. God has created each one of us uniquely. We might never understand why we were born in a particular place, family, or community, but God has His reasons. We must learn to trust in His wisdom and love: “Put no trust in princes, in mortal men in whom there is no help.
So how do we respond to the grace of God? At the conclusion of this series of parables, Jesus said, “‘Have you understood all this?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his storeroom things both new and old.'” We must learn from both the bad and the good, the old and the new. In the context of Jesus’ parable, He was addressing His fellow Jews, reminding them of the need to be faithful to the Law given to them by Moses, while simultaneously learning from Him how to go beyond the Law. The mistake of the scribes and Pharisees was that they were so fixated on keeping the letter of the Law perfectly that they forgot its spirit. Jesus came to enlighten them and show them how to go beyond the Law so that the spirit of the Law is truly observed. Unless we bring together both the old and the new, we will not find life, because observing the Law alone cannot give us life unless it is observed with the right spirit.
So too for us: it is necessary that we come to the Lord with all our gifts, experiences, mistakes, and strengths so that God can use them to form us and perfect us in love and maturity. Our mistakes and failures are also channels of God’s grace in our process of growth. We must never condemn ourselves simply because we have made foolish mistakes and decisions in life. Our fellow human beings might never give us a second chance — our spouse might not want us back if we have committed adultery — but God never gives up on us. God wants to use both our strengths and our weaknesses for our future growth into full maturity in Christ. So, we should not forget our past, lest we repeat its mistakes; but we should also remain receptive to the present and what is to come, lest we become fossilised in our past.
This is the mark of a true disciple of the Kingdom. When we understand the workings of the Kingdom of God, we become wiser in cherishing what we have inherited from history and from God’s past revelations. Yet at the same time, we realise the past can only be fully understood in the light of God’s present revelation. Often, when something happens to us in the moment, we hold a certain perspective on it–if it is good, we are happy; if it is negative, we are sad. But when we look at that same event many years down the road, we often view it differently. What was apparently a disgrace or a setback is now seen in a positive light because it shaped us to be stronger and more resilient. Conversely, things or events we once thought were good for us can sometimes turn out, in hindsight, to have been to our disadvantage. Life is an ongoing conversion of the heart.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
