“Many people promise themselves that they will live a holy life but they fail because they have been put into the furnace and have come out cracked!!!” St. Augustine

Commentary

The humbling fact about being human is that we are all like pots that have been kept in the oven too long. We have come into the world “cracked” in one way or another and, despite our occasional delusion of grandeur, we remain cracked pots.

These cracks show themselves primarily in our confused mind and weak will. As Augustine told his listeners,

Either you don’t know what you should do or, if you do know, you discover that you are too weak to do it. Such confusion and weakness is the root of very evil that we humans do.

At the same time, there are good reasons for hope. Jesus is not only our Lord God, he is also our doctor. He comes no to condemn us but to heal us. As Augustine says;

The important thing is not to give up while the healing is going on. Remember that Jesus loved you when there was little lovely about you at all. Can you imagine what he will do for you when you are finally healed, considering that he died for you when you were still warped and ugly?