Memory of the Church

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Matthew 7,21-29

'It is not anyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?" Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, all evil doers! 'Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock. But everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had!' Jesus had now finished what he wanted to say, and his teaching made a deep impression on the people because he taught them with authority, unlike their own scribes.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This word of the Gospel helps us to understand where the stability of life is. And in this time marked by so much instability, when we realise how precarious our existence and the life of the world is, these words call us to build our house on the rock. This is not just for us, but for the many people who have nowhere to go. We are in a time of war, with all the consequences, as Jesus says; it is a time of rain, of rivers overflowing, of winds blowing like a great storm and a flood that wants to submerge everything. But "God is our refuge and strength" as Psalm 46 says, "a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea." In difficult times there is a strong temptation to loneliness and thinking of oneself, which however turns out to be the great deception, because in the time of the storm it is the "sand" that brings down the house. As Cardinal Martini wrote: "We must not forget the adversary that through tiredness, boredom, and frustration comes to weaken our life. There we must resist with strength, resist, resist!" The strongest rock is that which is found in the depths, which must be found through reading the Bible. Jesus says that those who do the Father's will will enter the kingdom, and the Father's will is that none of his children be lost, and that all may have a place and a home from now on, and that we prepare it for those who are left alone.