2 Cor 4:7-15 / Matthew 5:27-32
Earthenware vessels are almost like a thing of the past. Probably it is used only as some kind of decoration or give a retro kind of ambience.
But gone are the days when cooking is done with earthenware vessels and food was kept in earthenware vessels.
Certainly it is because earthenware vessels are fragile compared to the modern day metal pots and pans that have special qualities about them.
Even though there may be no sophisticated metals pots and pans with non-stick and induction heating qualities, St. Paul in the 1st reading used the imagery of earthenware jars to refer to himself
It was these earthenware vessels that contain the treasures for God's people and the purpose was to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God.
Indeed man is only an earthenware vessel that is fragile. Yet it is in that fragile state that God uses man as an instrument and a vessel for His treasures.
And we too are like earthenware vessels containing God's treasure, and we must be careful not get knocked by falling into sin.
To sin is liken to hitting an earthenware vessel with a hard sharp object.
Hence whatever that causes us to sin we have to cut it off, as Jesus would say in the gospel.
Let us be that earthenware vessel that contains God's treasure, than to be the broken pieces that cause others harm.