Matthew 7:21-29

2 Kings 24:8-17

Psalm 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9

Matthew 7:21-29

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.”

When Jesus finished these words,

the crowds were astonished at his teaching,

for he taught them as one having authority,

and not as their scribes.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I want my house and my life to be built wisely on solid rock and not foolishly on shifting sand. I promise to listen to the life-giving words of your Son and act on them. May I accomplish your heavenly will in all that I do.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Last Kings of Judah: To understand the First Reading, it is good to recall that the reforms of King Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.) and King Josiah (640-609 B.C.) failed to stem the tide of divine judgment against the Kingdom of Judah. The sins of King Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, were abominable: Manasseh “not only rebelled against God’s covenant but perfected evil in Judah and Jerusalem as never before. He even sacrificed his own children on the fiery altar of the pagan god Molech and ordered the death of thousands of Jewish children on altars outside of Jerusalem” (Hahn, A Father Who Keeps His Promises, 223). These sins sealed the fate of Jerusalem and not even the reform of King Josiah was enough to correct the evil. “Despite Josiah’s desperate efforts to renew the covenant, Pharaoh Necho defeated and killed him in battle at Megiddo. Three months later [Necho] deposed Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, and installed Jehoiakim as a puppet king. Jehoiakim’s ‘reign’ was therefore already bondage” (Levering, Ezra & Nehemiah, 40). Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim, reigned in Judah for eleven years, but “did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done” (2 Kings 23:37). In 605 B.C. the Babylonians marched into Palestine and made Judah a vassal state after defeating the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The First and Second Book of the Kings, 108).

2. The Fall of Jerusalem: Two decades after the reforms of King Josiah, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in the spring of 597 B.C. and a major deportation of Judean exiles to Babylon occurred. The King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, carried away the royal family along with skilled workers and soldiers from Jerusalem. In place of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Mattaniah, Jehoiakim’s uncle, as king and changed his name to Zedekiah. In response to Zedekiah’s rebellion against Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar returned a decade later, in 586 B.C., to lay siege to Jerusalem and carry the Judeans away into captivity. The Book of Chronicles says this about Zedekiah’s reign: “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. All the leading priests and the people likewise were unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 36:12-14). Psalm 78 is taken from Book Three of the Psalter. The Psalm “contrasts the promises of the Davidic kingdom and Zion with the reality of Israel in exile. If Israel is God's ‘inheritance’ why have the nations been allowed to overcome them? If God has loved Zion so much and has made it His sanctuary, why has God allowed his Temple to be defiled and destroyed? Like many of the Davidic psalms, it ends with a promise to offer todah [thanksgiving] once the restoration has occurred (v. 13)” (Barber, Singing in the Reign, 110).

3. The Conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount: In the Gospel, Jesus, the son of David, concludes his Sermon on the Mount with two teachings: the first is the need to do the will of the Father in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; the second is to listen to Jesus’ words and act on them. The two teachings go hand in hand: Jesus is the one who reveals to us the will of the Father. Every time we read the Gospel in prayer we are listening to Jesus’ words. By keeping his commands, we remain in his love (John 15:10). God’s word enables us to find the path that leads to harmony with God’s loving will. In Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict taught that we can discern God’s will and recognize it in our conscience, but that we also need Jesus to draw us up to himself and into himself, so that in communion with him we can learn God’s will (see Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1, 148-150).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have built your house on rock. It will never fail or be destroyed. Teach me how to build my house properly. May I truly be in this world a Temple of your Spirit, a spiritual house of prayer, sacrifice, and merciful love.

Living the Word of God: How is my “house”? Are the foundations of my life – my faith – solid? What relationships are in urgent need of repair? What needs to be touched up? What needs to be remodeled? What needs to be expanded? Are the poor welcome in my house? Do people encounter God’s love in my house?