Scripture:
Isaiah 26:1-6
Matthew 7:21, 24-27
Reflection:
When I was young, I was blessed to be part of the Cursillo[PG1] “short course” (in Christianity) movement. The first talk of our weekends was on “Ideals;” and the main point was that we know our Ideals (values) by three things: what we think about, how we use our time, and where we spend our money. As the weekend unfolded, we were invited to align our thinking, our activities, and our resources more closely with the Gospel values of Jesus, as the foundation for our lives.
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus asking us to do just that: to listen to His words and act on them: to not just mouth “Lord, Lord” but to really walk the talk.
And Jesus assures us that we:
“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.”
The people to whom Jesus spoke knew well the Palestinian winter rains that came down the slopes and eroded the sand from around the foundations of their homes…unless they were built on a rock foundation.
In today’s first reading from Isaiah, God is described as the “eternal Rock” in whom we can put our trust. The “Rock” is a common Old Testament metaphor expressing the dependability of God.
As we strive to align our lives more closely with Jesus this Advent 2021, Scripture scholar Walter Bruggemann has a contemporary prayer to help us:
We discover yet again, how sandy we are,
with the quaking of our foundations
and our fantasized firmaments.
We are filled with trembling and nightmares that disturb.
An then you-rock-solid-stable-reliable-sure
You rock against our sand,
You rock of ages,
You rock that is higher than us treading water,
You rock of compassion –
be compassionate even for us, our loved ones
and all our needy neighbors.
You rock of abidingness for our sick,
and for those long loved, lingering memories,
dead and in your care,
You rock of justice for the nations,
fed up with our hate,
exhausted by the greed of our several tribes,
You rock of communion in our loneliness,
rock of graciousness in our many modes of gracelessness.
Come be present even here and there, and there, and there.
Move us from our sandy certitudes to your grace-filled risk,
Move us to become more rock-like
in compassion and abidingness and justice,
Move us to be more like you in our neighborliness
and in our self-regard.
Yes, yes, yes – move us that we may finally
stand on the solid rock, no more sinking sand.
——from Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth, Prayers of Walter Brueggemann
Patty Gillis is a retired Pastoral Minister. She served on the Board of Directors at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit. She is currently a member of the Laudato Si Vision Fulfillment Team and the Passionist Solidarity Network.