What are we to God
- August 07, 2009
For the human race silver and gold are the romantic metals, the stuff of jewelry and heirlooms. Silver makes the ideal wedding gift, and it traditionally marks the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Mothers and grandmothers lovingly pass on their silver service to the next generations, who proudly display it and carefully insure it.
Practically speaking, humanity’s love affair with silver doesn’t make much sense. Stainless steel is practical; sterling silver is not. Silver tarnishes, turns ugly, and it must be polished, a messy and tedious process. Once polished, silver tarnishes again and again, year after year, generation after generation.
Still those mothers and grandmothers keep polishing the silver and keep on bequeathing it to loved ones. No one even considers bequeathing stainless steel to the youngsters. Why? Well, because stainless steel is a bit dull, and it’s only stainless steel. And silver does look so beautiful when it’s polished. Also, because the silver has been in the family ever so long. Finally, just because.
The truth is this: We are God’s silver. All of us. God “sits refining and purifying” us all, his children, generation after generation, because he loves us. He knows that it is in our nature to become tarnished, to behave sinfully and ignore him, and that he must constantly call us back to himself and polish us with his attentive love and grace. God knows that we will go on getting more or less tarnished, and he will have to continue polishing. Even after Jesus Christ has “refined” us sacramentally through the power of his saving action, we will need that polishing all our lives long.
Why does God do it? He polishes us because he cherishes us. We are precious and valuable to him. He could have created a stainless-steel equivalent, but he created us. The reason why is a mystery, but the cherishing is real. The preaching of Jesus Christ is full of the good news of that cherishing.
This realization can calm our anxiety about our worth in God’s eyes. It should not tempt us to complacency. After all, analogies limp, and we are not metal, but free women and men who can make graced choices either to tarnish or to be polished in God’s sight. With his grace we can be “self-polishing” as silver never can. The important lesson this image teaches is that we are simultaneously cherished and imperfect. To God, “cherished” matters much more than “imperfect,” and so it should matter much more to us.
The reflection above is taken from the book “Precious as Silver: Imagining Your Life with God,” written by Most Reverend George H. Niederauer. Published in 2004 by Ave Maria Press, the book is available at www.avemariapress.com or other book sellers.
By Archbishop George H. Niederauer.
From August 7, 2009 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
