“I'm not at all contemptuous of comforts, but they have their place and it is not first.”

"How many of us, myself included, have lost our bearings; we are no longer attentive to the world in which we live; we don't care; we don't protect what God created for everyone, and we end up unable even to care for one another!" – Pope Francis (Homily July 8, 2013)

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.”

What is your “house” built on? Is your “house” built on your family? Your friends? Your desires? Your job? Material possessions? Yourself?

Or is your “house” built on your relationship with God?

What is the foundation of your entire life? The all familiar children’s story of the Three Little Pigs comes to mind (humor me). The first little pig built his house out of straw, because it was the easiest thing to do. The second little pig built his house out of sticks, a little bit better but still not built to last. The third little pig built his house out of bricks, a good strong and solid foundation. Everything was fine until the wolf came along and as we all know he blew in the house of the straw and sticks, but he could not blow in the house of bricks. So we are not the three little pigs, but the enemy works similarly in our lives as the wolf did. When our foundation is built on rock, on our Lord, the enemy cannot blow our house in and we cannot be shaken. But if we are not rooted in this Love that comes from and is Jesus Christ, our foundations will crumble. It seems that our society today is and tells us to build “our house” on success, fame, wealth and material goods. These are all passing things, things that will not withstand the storms of our lives. When things get tough, tragedy approaches or we are faced with difficulties, without a solid foundation on God, we will fall apart.

It is a fact, however, that many believe and do not “do”. Saint James' letter exposes it in an impressive way: «Be doers of the Word and not just hearers, lest you deceive yourselves» (1:22); «Faith without deeds: it is totally dead» (2:17); «So, just as the body is dead without its spirit, so faith without deeds is also dead» (2:26). Saint Matthew rejects such a way of going about one's faith, in an unforgettable way, when he says: «Not everyone who says to me: Lord! Lord! will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my heavenly Father» (7:21).

It is therefore necessary to listen and to do; in this way we build on rock and not on sand.