Thursday of the Twelfth
Week in Ordinary Time
(II Kings 24:8-17; Matthew 7:21-29)
A few years ago a man owning a two hundred year-old house in
New England visited Rome
In the gospel today Jesus names the condition for a house to
remain standing in perpetuity. He says
that it must be built upon rock and not upon sand. Of course, he is not concerned about
buildings but about people. He means to say
that if people seek fulfillment in life then they should base their lives upon
his words. Doing all that he commands in
the Sermon on the Mount, which he completes in today’s reading, will assure his
assistance in weathering any storm.
The first reading offers a demonstration of what Jesus is
getting at. The dynasty to which
Jehoiachin belongs falls because of lack of attention to the word of God. As the reading says, Jehoiachin and his
forbears “did evil in the sight of the Lord.”
Interestingly, dynasties are frequently called “houses” probably because
the personal traits are passed along from ancestor to descendant as if it were a
house. Anyway, if dynasties are to
survive, just as if individuals are to find fulfillment, their inheritors must practice
justice.
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