First Sunday of Advent
“Yet, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.” – Isaiah 64:7
Imagine a clay sculpture that strikingly bears a resemblance to the person it was sculpted after. Now imagine that the sculpture is damaged in an earthquake. It toppled and fell onto the floor. It isn’t entirely broken, for it still bears resemblance to the model. But it’s broken and disfigured, in need of repair. The creator and the model must come to restore it.
The phrase imago Dei is Latin for “image of God.” God created Adam out of the clay (Genesis 2:7), but God also made him in His “image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Adam was the work of God’s hands and bore His likeness, but it was damaged after he and Eve sinned—the earthquake that was the fall of man. Adam still resembled God, but his spirit needed to be repaired so it again bore the image and likeness of the Father. The creator, God the Word, and the self-same model, God the Son, came to earth to reinstate humanity to our dignity as sons and daughters of God. Christ came to restore us to His image, the imago Dei.
St. Paul writes, “The first man [Adam] was from the earth, earthly; the second man [Christ], from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one” (1 Corinthians 15:47-49). We are all the work of God’s hands; we are the clay and God is the potter (cf Isaiah 64:7).
“My children, for whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you!” – Galatians 4:19
Each of us are made in both Adam’s image and in God’s image. Each of us is in need of Christ our Savior to restore us when we’ve fallen away from our true selves in sin—broken on the floor like the clay statue. When we’re restored through baptism, reconciliation, and the Eucharist, we are conformed to Christ’s image. This is the beauty of the Incarnation, the coming of Christ, which we will celebrate in just four short weeks. Perhaps a focus for Advent this year could be to be conformed to the imago Dei, the image of Christ. Allow God to mold you like clay into His Son’s image.
Abba, Father, conform me to the image of Christ Your Son. Restore me when I have fallen and give me the grace to imitate Him in all that I do.