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 A Thought on Sunday
The Master Craftsman
From the desk of
Fr. Ignatius Waters c.p.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
In the long room of the old monastery there is a most unusual grandfather clock, unlike any you’ve ever seen. It is made of beautifully carved oak. It must have been ages in the making - I almost said in the building - because it stands about 15 feet tall. Who made it, I do not know. All I know is it was made with great love and great skill.
Inside there’s a request written in old-fashioned handwriting: “Please wind me every Friday” But I’m afraid it hasn’t been wound for a very long time.  Unlike the grandfather clock in the song that “Stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died,” our clock stopped short long before the old monastery died! That song was written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work and is said to have been responsible for the common name “grandfather clock” for what are properly called “longcase clocks”. Maybe it also inspired the making of ours?
I thought of our clock last Sunday when the First Reading described wisdom being at the Creator’s side as the “master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence, at play everywhere in the world.” What power and energy and wisdom went into the crafting of the world! What energy and work and patient perseverance go into the learning of any craft!
The early pages of the Bible tell us we are made in God’s likeness. And being like God means being creative. God graciously shares his creative energies with us and we are never more like God and never more alive than when we are being creative in some way. And this page is not big enough to list even some of the myriad ways we are creative: makers of music, cabinet makers, clock makers, writers, architects, designers, artists of all kinds, craftsmen and women of all kinds, and the most sacred making of all – being procreators with God in bringing children into the world!
Recently, too, we marvelled at the skills of surgeon Edward Kiely who successfully separated the little Behaffaf twins, and the quick action and skill of surgeon Gerry McEntee in the Mater who saved the life of young soccer star, Shane Duffy, who was seconds from death after a freak accident.
No wonder the Psalmist sings of us, “You have made him little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and splendour.” (Ps. 8:5) Though we don’t always feel it, we are God’s work of art and God doesn’t make junk!
We are only too well aware of the Original Sin, that we are born flawed and wounded; we need to be just as aware of the Original Blessing, that we were created good and gifted!
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