Building our lives on solid foundation.
Today we have heard the final words of the Sermon on the Mount, the sermon that is Jesus’ manifesto, his picture of what real Christian living means. It ends with a plea and a warning against hypocrisy: he urges us to put our faith into practice.
We hear about a wise man who built his house on a rock, in other words “on a good foundation. Neither rains nor floods or strong winds could topple the house. It remained solid. Stable and livable, but the story does far more than tell us how and where to build our home. Jesus is telling us where our true home is (the kingdom of heaven) and how we are to get there and remain in this home (by doing more than simply listening to his words.).
Not all of us build on solid rock. Some lives are built on the slippery and changing sands of instability, showiness, ignoring our everyday responsibilities that we ought to face. The solid rock upon which Jesus invites us to build our home is nothing less than doing “the will of our heavenly Father.”
Words are not enough; Jesus makes it clear that it is deeds that set the direction for us to live our life. The bedrock is doing God’s will through the words Jesus speaks to us. Indeed Jesus is the rock upon which we are to build our lives, and our encounters with him teach us to do as he did.
Jesus’ words must become our words. His deeds, our deeds!
We learn Jesus’ words through our encounters with him, encounters made possible because Jesus lived the everyday life that we live. He used simple language like talking about building a house with which we all can identify. Jesus’ words came out of His lived experience – first out of doing the will of His Father and second, out of His knowing who we are and what we really need in order to hear and understand the fullness of life that is God’s will for us.
We can achieve fullness of life by doing God’s will in our everyday living as Jesus would do them. It doesn’t call for us to perform extraordinary feats of prophesying, driving out demons or doing other mighty deeds.
How should we listen to the words of Jesus, each time they are read at Mass?
First, we should listen with our body. That is, we should listen reverently.
An early fourth-century bishop used to tell his congregation:
You receive into your hand the Body of the Lord reverently, lest even a tiny crumb fall to the floor. You should receive the Word of the Lord in the same way.
Second, we should listen to His word with our minds.
For example, we should try to imagine what went on in the minds of the disciples as they heard Jesus say to them:
Not everyone who calls me “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven,
But only the one who does the will of my Father.
Third, we should listen with our hearts. That is, we should “take to heart” what Jesus says and obey it.
An example of “taking to heart” the words of Jesus is in the story about some prisoners on Riker’s Island in New York who were silently meditating on the parable of the Good Samaritan. The room was cold and one of the inmates was visibly shivering.
Suddenly, one of the inmates wrapped in two blankets took one and gave it to the shivering inmate.
That inmate was not only listening to the Word, but also “took it to heart.”
Finally, we should listen with our souls. That is, we should listen with faith, by placing our complete trust in what Jesus tells us.
So, we should listen to God’s Word with our whole being: reverently with our bodies, imaging with our minds, obediently with our hearts, and trustingly with our souls.
Of course, life is seldom founded on sand or on rock – as the story might suggest. Even if we take to heart Christ’s teachings and try to put them into practice in our daily life, all too often we may fail.
But there is encouragement for us in the words of St Paul in today’s reading. He tells us that we have all “forfeited [or better “fallen short of‟] God’s glory” – none of us has shown forth the glory that is ours as God’s children.
But we need not lose heart: in another of his letters Paul explains that he’s not perfect yet – and which of us does not fall into that category?
So, what Moses said to the Israelites after he came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, Jesus says also to us:
Remember these commands and cherish them.
Tie them on your arms and wear them on your foreheads as a reminder…
Today, I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse—
a blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today;
but a curse, if you disobey these commands and turn away to worship other gods. Deuteronomy 11:18—19, 26—28
We would do well to recall today’s readings as we receive ashes on Wednesday and we are asked, “Will you turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel?”
I was listening to one of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s tapes on the way to church. He was talking about God created everything good, but freewill allowed some to go bad, thus evil was introduced into the world. He said a rotten apple is just a good apple gone bad. We can choose to be saints or we can choose to be Satan!
God’s word provides a rocklike foundation for our lives. But it is not enough to listen to God’s word: we have to live it. We know we haven’t always done that, so let us ask God’s forgiveness, and the strength to do better in the future.