Thursday of the
Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
(II Kings 24:8-17; Matthew 7:21-29)
Jesus in today’s gospel could well have been commenting
on our first reading. That passage from
the Second Book of Kings takes note of the final days of the Kingdom of Judah. After the spring of renewal with Josiah, Judah’s
kings returned to idolatrous ways. Now
the entire kingdom experiences downfall.
The king of Babylon carries off the nation’s wealth and a sizeable
number of its population.
In the gospel Jesus warns about basing one’s life on wickedness. He compares it to building a house on sand
which will give way in a storm. It is
necessary, Jesus says, to construct a house on rock which provides a firm
foundation. Rock, which is often an
image of God himself, symbolizes here Jesus’ moral teaching in the Sermon on
the Mount.
History may be described as the sequence of great nations
falling because of the deterioration of virtue.
Many peoples have built empires which eroded as the people lost their bearings
of righteousness. Rome is the greatest
example. We Americans must assure that
our country’s laws are firmly grounded on morality if the nation’s future is to
resemble its past.
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