Saint Paul in writing to Saint Timothy reassures him that although we are unfaithful, God remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Paraphrasing these consoling words, we might say that although we may give up on ourselves, God never gives up on us. Accordingly, like the potter, who tries again and again when the object he is making turns out badly, so God never gives up in his efforts to recreate and free us from the warping and alienating effects of sin. This is even true of the mission and role that God entrusts to each of us. Peter’s denial of Jesus at the time of his arrest is an instance of clay that turned out badly in the hands of the potter. However, Jesus neither gives up on him nor simply discards him but places him back on the potter’s wheel and re-forms him into the great apostle he became. Monastic life is that potter’s wheel upon which God continues to mold us into something noble and beautiful. However, because we are free, we unfortunately resist the loving and molding hands of God’s grace and may actually try to escape the potter’s wheel. Doing so is possible, but separates us from the Potter and risks our becoming one of those bad fish described in today’s gospel that are tragically thrown away. This latter possibility is never because God has given up on us, but rather because we have given up on God and succumbed to despair. Through the abundant grace of this Eucharist may we be preserved from such hopelessness and despair and, instead, become those precious vessels perfectly formed by the healing and transforming hands of the Lord.