9^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – March 6^th -2011

Gospel - Mt 7:21-27

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.”

***************

Apparently today’s readings are contradictory. In the first reading Moses is telling Israelites:

“I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse:

a blessing for obeying the commandments of the LORD, your God …

a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,”

In the second reading St. Paul seems to contradict Moses:

“we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law ..”

And in the Gospel Jesus is apparently contradicting St. Paul:

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house 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.”

Is Moses wrong? Does St. Paul denies the law of the Old Testament as wrong? Or maybe Jesus is wrong?

I thing that all are right. If we read St. James:

“You believe in the one God -- that is creditable enough, but even the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Fool! Would you not like to know that faith without deeds is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by his deed, because he offered his son Isaac on the altar?” (James 2:19-20)

Today we come to the very end of the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. We are not surprised that the conclusion of this long sermon comes with an allusion to the Last Day.

The words ‘ON THAT DAY’ are a clear reference to the Day of Judgement and the separation of the righteous and sinners. Here it is not in the form of sheep and goats but as the man who built his house on sand as opposed to the one who built his house on rock.

Here we see clearly that Jesus, good psychologist that he is, doesn’t take the hell-fire approach; but what he does He heavily stress that a choice must be made in life.

Listening to and then acting on his words leads to eternal life; however, those who merely listen but do not act will find themselves outside the Kingdom.

And choice is what the Christian life is all about: choosing the Kingdom, choosing to accept God’s will, choosing the good and rejecting the evil.

A lot of us, however, like to sit on the fence. We like to have one foot in both camps; we come to Mass and we say our prayers but we like to dabble a bit on the side. We are overly fond of Augustine’s words in prayer to the Lord, “God, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.”

We want to have our cake and eat it, we want to be good and holy, and ultimately to go to heaven, but we don’t want to be rid of our sins and pleasures just yet. We rather like them and treat them as old friends that we don’t want to push out of the door.

And like that we are paying the double game. There is a story which perhaps will help us to portrait the situation.

“A rich man decided he should do something for the poor so he went to the poorest man in the village and gave him the contract to build a house. It was to be a grand house and no expense was to be spared.

The rich man then went off on a long journey.

The poor man thought to himself that this was his big chance to make a killing. He built the house but with the cheapest of everything, all the while submitting bills to the agent for the best of materials.

When the rich man returned he was able to present him with the key to the new house. The rich man promptly returned the key to the builder and said that he would be happy if he would accept the house as his gift.”

Don’t we realise that indeed we are the builders, the constructors of our own future, of our eternity?

“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.”