EARTHEN VESSELS: A liturgical reflection

We hold a treasure
Not made of gold
In earthen vessels, wealth untold
One treasure only, the Lord, the Christ
In earthen vessels.

This beautiful text is from the hymn, “Earthen Vessels,” written by John Foley SJ. As a liturgical musician for over 37 years, I have sung the words of this hymn, and have meditated on the words often. The text is based on a passage from Paul’s 2^nd Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 4, verses 6-10, “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Christ. But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.” (NAB)

As the Logos, the Word of God, the Son of God chose the human body, fragile and easily broken as it is, in which to be incarnated, so, too does the Son of God pick as his first choice to dwell, our fragile and easily broken bodies. It is because our bodies are so fragile that Christ chooses them so that, as Paul so wonderfully writes, the life of Christ may be shown as coming from God and not from something that we, as human beings, can manufacture. We are reminded at every funeral, every burial, and most vividly, on Ash Wednesday when ashes are smeared on our foreheads, that our bodies are from the earth. We find that our beginning and our end is that of the earth. We are earthen vessels.

The text from the refrain of the hymn, “Earthen Vessels,” has led me to reflect on the centuries old practice of having chalices (essentially a fancy cup) and ciborium (essentially a fancy plate on a stick) made of precious metal, mostly gold. For a while, after the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, other materials, including clay/pottery and wood, were considered very worthy of use as chalice and ciborium for the celebration of the Mass. Sadly, with the new Roman Missal and the way it is being understood/promulgated by some bishops, the practice of using pottery is being forbidden in dioceses, including ours. In particular, pottery, an earthen vessel, is not worthy enough to hold the Body and Blood of Christ, so we are told. It is too easily broken. The question I would wish to pose to the bishops is this, “is this teaching of God, or of humanity?” 

If we used the reasoning of some of the bishops about the use of precious metals as being only worthy enough to hold the Body and Blood of Jesus, we as human beings, fragile and broken as we are, would never be able to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion. By emphasizing that the material that holds the Body and Blood of Christ must be of precious metal, do we not make the precious metal more of a treasure than the Body and Blood of Jesus? This does not seem to be the first choice of God but rather the choice of human beings. It is not God who has an obsession with gold or silver, it is a human obsession. Do not gold chalices and ciborium embellished with jewels take away from that which is the real treasure, the treasure that is beyond human value, that being the Body and Blood of Jesus? Does not all the gold finery distract from the Body and Blood of Christ? As Paul states very straightforwardly, God does not choose precious metal in which to dwell, God chooses the weakest of all materials, the human body. If the human body is an acceptable receptacle for the Body and Blood of Jesus, so why not use that which is made from the earth, a simple substance from the earth like pottery so that “that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us?”