DAILY MEDITATION: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Liturgical day: Thursday of the First Week of Advent

Gospel text (Mt 7,21.24-27): 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”.

“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.”

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Fr. Jean-Charles TISSOT
(Freiburg, Switzerland)

Today, the Lord pronounced these words at the end of His "Sermon on the Mount" where He bestows a new and deeper meaning to the Commandments of the Old Testament, the "words" of God to men. He talks as the Son of God, and as such, He demands us “to receive what I say to you”, as very significant words. Thus, these are words of eternal life which we must put into practice; they are not given to us just to be heard without any personal involvement —only to forget them later, or just to admire the speaker.

“To build a house on sand” (cf. Mt 7, 26) is an image used to describe a foolish behavior that leads us nowhere and ends up in failure after a long and painful effort to build something. “Bene curris, sed extra viam", said St. Augustine, which we could translate as: “You run well, but you are off the path”. What a shame to end up like that, at the time of trial, of the storms and floods that inevitably fill up our life!

On the other hand, the Lord wants to teach us how to set up a solid groundwork, the base of which originates in our effort to act according to His teachings, living them every day with small decisions that we will try to follow. Thus, our daily resolutions to live by Christ’s teachings must end up in tangible results which, despite not being definitive, can still bring joy and gratitude when we examine our conscience at the end of the day. The joy of having achieved a small victory over ourselves is a preparation for other battles, and the strength will not fail us - with the grace of God — to persevere until the end.

Source: evangeli.net