Build your house on the rock of Christ

Welcome to my blog.

The Catholic Church provides us each day with God’s Word. If we put aside time each day to read, meditate and pray over his Word we will come to know the truth and grow in love.

Here in my blog, you will find the readings from Bible chosen for us by the Church. The New Testament was written by members of the Church. It was the Catholic Church, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which decided which books were inspired and which not. We should read the Scripture listening to the Spirit, who inspired those who first wrote these words. May he speak to you too.

Thursday 25 June 2020

Build your house on the rock of Christ

 Ps 27: 8-9

The Lord is the strength of his people,

a saving refuge for the one he has anointed.

Save your people, Lord, and bless your heritage,

and govern them for ever.

Prayer

Father in heaven, grant

that we may always reverence and love you,

for you never deprive of your guidance

those whose life is firmly founded on love for you.

We make our prayer through your Son,

Christ Jesus our Lord.

First reading

2 Kings 24:8-17

The king of Babylon also led captive to Babylon Jehoiachin and the chief men of the land.

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his forebears had done.

At that time the officials of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, himself arrived at the city while his servants were besieging it. Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, together with his mother, his ministers, officers, and functionaries, surrendered to the king of Babylon, who, in the eighth year of his reign, took him captive. And he carried off all the treasures of the temple of the Lord and those of the palace, and broke up all the gold utensils that Solomon, king of Israel, had provided in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had foretold. He deported all Jerusalem: all the officers and men of the army, ten thousand in number, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None were left among the people of the land except the poor. He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon, and also led captive from Jerusalem to Babylon the king’s mother and wives, his functionaries, and the chief men of the land. The king of Babylon also led captive to Babylon all seven thousand men of the army, and a thousand craftsmen and smiths, all of them trained soldiers. In place of Jehoiachin, the king of Babylon appointed his uncle Mattaniah king, and changed his name to Zedekiah. THE WORD OF THE LORD

Prayerful reflection

As St. Paul says of the Old Testament, all these things are a lesson for us (1 Cor 10:1-6). We see the New Testament hidden in the Old. The wages for sin are death (Rom 6:23). We see this played out in the destruction of Jerusalem. Though God sent prophet after prophet, the Jews would not listen. As at Meribah and  Massah, the hardened their hearts (Psalm 95). They continued to lust after evil and do it.

They were God’s chosen people, loved and cherished by God. Like the prodigal son they abandoned the One who brought them out of slavery. No doubt it was difficult to observe the covenant of a God they could not see and only spoke through ordinary folk like Isaiah, Jeremiah and the others who called themselves prophets. But he spoke and they did not listen – one king after another. It was a downward slope until everything crashed with the invasion of the  Babylonians, the destruction of Jerusalem, the massacre of the inhabitants, and the deportation of all leading people as captives to Babylon.

It is the same for us as individuals and nations. What happened in the Old Testament are lessons for us and the wages for sin are death. Is not this the message of the Virgin Mother in all the apparitions approved and recognized by the Church.

The exile to Babylon was a painful lesson for the Jews. It was however a lesson and not a rejection. They would return against all odds. The returned exiles would be more faithful. Why to have to undergo the pain of God’s discipline, when we can have his protection through love and obedience.

Do you heed the message of God for your life? Peace is the gift of God to those who love him and keep his commandments (John 14:27)

Psalm

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

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;

they have defiled your holy temple,

they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

They have given the corpses of your servants

as food to the birds of heaven,

the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the earth.

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

They have poured out their blood like water

round about Jerusalem,

and there is no one to bury them.

We have become the reproach of our neighbours,

the scorn and derision of those around us.

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

O Lord, how long? Will you be angry forever?

Will your jealousy burn like fire?

Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;

may your compassion quickly come to us,

for we are brought very low.

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

Help us, O God our savior,

because of the glory of your name;

Deliver us and pardon our sins

for your name’s sake.

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

John 14:23

Alleluia, alleluia.

Whoever loves me will keep my word,

and my Father will love him

and we will come to him.

Alleluia, alleluia.

____________________

Gospel

Matthew 7:21-29

The house built on rock and the house built on sand.

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. THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD

Prayerful reflection

Not everyone will go to heaven. “Depart from me, you evildoers”. This is a shocking and frightening verdict, but it is true. We have to listen to the pleasant as well as the unpleasant words of Jesus. He does not mince his words. We pray in the litany of the saints, ‘deliver us from eternal death’, that is hell. We believe, but faith without good works is dead. We are not saved by faith alone (James 2:24,26).

We must learn to listen to the Word of God and then act on it. To be saved, to enter heaven, to enjoy the bliss of  God, we must do what Jesus tells us to do. ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments’ – you will do what I say. Can I do this? ‘I can do all things, through him who helps me’. “The Lord is the strength of his people”.

If God is on our side, who can be against us (St. Paul to the Romans)? If the Lord is my strength, then how can my life collapse? If he is not then there is no hope for my eternal salvation.

Through daily meditation on the Word of God and prayer, do you build up this saving relationship with Jesus?

                                                                                                                                         Ps 144: 15

The eyes of all look to you, Lord,

and you give them their food in due season.

Prayer

Father in heaven, through the Bread of your Word

and the Bread of your Holy Eucharist,

you constantly nourish us.

We pray that we may receive this food

wholeheartedly and so receive the eternal salvation

you promise us.

We may our prayer through your Son,

Christ Jesus our Lord.