Thursday in the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time, June 23, 2022

Matthew 7, 21-29

Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’  Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”  When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

With this reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew, we come to the end of the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount.  He has laid before us his moral teachings and will shortly confirm them through a series of powerful miracles.  Here, he speaks of the consequences of those who do not follow his teachings though pretending to be his followers.  And in the Sermon’s concluding words, the Lord teaches how following his laws provides his true followers a sure foundation for us to reach heaven.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven.”  It is easy to call for help when we find ourselves in grave danger.  Likewise, it is easy to call Jesus “Lord” when he is about to judge us. But only those who served Jesus on earth as his servants will enter the Kingdom of heaven: “Only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”  To enter heaven after we die we must serve the King of heaven while we live.  He will recognize us as his servants and will invite us in.  More than that, “He will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them” (Luke 12, 37).  “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?”  However, they did not.  Or, for personal gain some people fake their Christianity and act as go through the motions of prophesying — preaching — and performing good works, but these, coupled with immoral living — insult God and do him no honor at all.  Instead, “their god is their belly” (Philippians 3, 19).  

“I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.”  That is, he never knew them as his followers, his servants.  They never came to him to learn of him.  In the end, they call upon him merely to stave off their condemnation: he is nothing more for them than a means to an end.  He calls them evildoers because he knows them for their godlessness.

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”  This means that the builder sinks the principal beams that will hold his house together into the rock, the deeper the better.  He must use solid wood, preferably a hardwood, or even with such a rock as the foundation the house will not last long.  The “rock” is the Church, which preserves and advances the teachings of the Lord.  The “wood” the builder uses is his intellect and free-will.  Grounded in this rock, these beams will fixedly hold together the house of this man’s hope for heaven.  “A fool who built his house on sand.”  It is relatively easy and cheap to build a house on a foundation of sand, but it will not endure.  Sand does offer much in the way of stability but is quickly scattered by the wind and washed away by water.  In the spiritual life, “sand” signifies our neglect of prayer, the Sacraments, Holy Mass, and a perverse trust in our own abilities.  “The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house.”  Trials, tribulations, health failures, the weakness of old age do not trouble those who have given themselves entirely to God, but will mean disaster for those who have not: their house will collapse and be completely ruined.  

“When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”  Throughout his Sermon, the Lord declared to the people, “I say.”  Here is your understanding of the Law, or the understanding of the scribes, but I say to you, etc.  The Lord Jesus came to complete and to fulfill, and to reveal the deeper demands of the Laws given to the people through Moses, which can now be carried out with the help of God’s grace.Through our adherence to the commandments of Christ we build our house on rock, looking forward to the day when we will dwell in God’s eternal dwellings.