Readings for Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 2 Kings 24:8-17
Following his father’s death, the young king Jehoiachin reigns for a very short period in Jerusalem. King Nebuchadnezzar of Neo-Babylon has already been attacking Judah for some time and reaches Jerusalem just three months (history records that the wall around Jerusalem was breached on March 16, 587 B.C) after the new king ascends the throne. Following its capture, we hear of the great Diaspora and sack of the temple as all of the leadership and soldiery are sent into exile.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Psalm 79 is a communal lament crying out to God that invaders have defiled the temple and killed the people. This lament is thought to reflect upon the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 587 B.C. The singer asks God how long his anger at them will last and pleads for pardon and deliverance.
Gospel Matthew 7:21-29
This is the final section of the first of five great discourses of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. In it he broadens his attack on false prophets to include those who perform acts in his name but lead lives of sin. He uses the analogy of the house built upon sand and the house built upon rock to indicate that those how have a deep faith and act out of that faith have a strong foundation and can stand against adversity; while those who give the faith lip service and for others to see but do not have that deep faith will fall. He will not even recognize them when they come before him in final judgment.
Reflection:
We are reminded of a story about the young Dutch boy who wished to hold back the sea so he could build a home by a wave swept shore. Each day he would go to the very edge of the shore at low tide and erect a wall as quickly as he could in hopes that it would prevent the water from washing over the place where he wanted to build when the tide came back in. Each day, no matter how fast and how sturdily he built the water would rush back and come around the sides of his wall and knock it down and wash over it.
The boy was becoming very sad and disheartened and went to his father and told him about his struggle. His father explained to him that, while he might be the best in the world at building dikes to hold back the water, he could not do what needed to be do by himself. He must enlist the aid of his friends and family that together they might create a structure that could hold back the sea for a day.
It was a week later that the boy, this time accompanied by his friends and family came to the shore. When the tide had gone out they worked furiously together and made an enclosure. When the tide came back in, the weak places were able to be reinforced and the dike stood throughout high tide. As the water receded, more dikes were added and in a matter of weeks enough ground was reclaimed from the sea to build several houses.
The young man thanked those who had helped and then together they thanked God because the Lord had given them strength to build, he had created the material with which they built, and had given them good weather without which all they had done would have been impossible.
We thought of this story, first because of the parable of the wise man who built his house upon a solid foundation, a rock. But when we think about that foundation we realized that it was not simply one rock that is the foundation for us but many. One man, though he was also God, came into the world and established the cornerstone of faith and upon that rock countless others of faith added their own effort and in many cases blood so that the great monument to the Father, the Church might be built.
We each must become like the rock that Jesus called in St. Peter. We must strengthen ourselves with what is good through prayer and discernment so we, like the friends and family of the Dutch boy in the story, might stand together against the storm of the world, remaining firm in the faith to God’s glory. We must reject what comes from the evil one and test each notion against the measure of the love of God and His Son.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture today is “The House Upon the Rock and The House Upon the Sand” by William James Webb, c. 1860
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 2 Kings 24:8-17
Following his father’s death, the young king Jehoiachin reigns for a very short period in Jerusalem. King Nebuchadnezzar of Neo-Babylon has already been attacking Judah for some time and reaches Jerusalem just three months (history records that the wall around Jerusalem was breached on March 16, 587 B.C) after the new king ascends the throne. Following its capture, we hear of the great Diaspora and sack of the temple as all of the leadership and soldiery are sent into exile.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Psalm 79 is a communal lament crying out to God that invaders have defiled the temple and killed the people. This lament is thought to reflect upon the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 587 B.C. The singer asks God how long his anger at them will last and pleads for pardon and deliverance.
Gospel Matthew 7:21-29
This is the final section of the first of five great discourses of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. In it he broadens his attack on false prophets to include those who perform acts in his name but lead lives of sin. He uses the analogy of the house built upon sand and the house built upon rock to indicate that those how have a deep faith and act out of that faith have a strong foundation and can stand against adversity; while those who give the faith lip service and for others to see but do not have that deep faith will fall. He will not even recognize them when they come before him in final judgment.
Reflection:
We are reminded of a story about the young Dutch boy who wished to hold back the sea so he could build a home by a wave swept shore. Each day he would go to the very edge of the shore at low tide and erect a wall as quickly as he could in hopes that it would prevent the water from washing over the place where he wanted to build when the tide came back in. Each day, no matter how fast and how sturdily he built the water would rush back and come around the sides of his wall and knock it down and wash over it.
The boy was becoming very sad and disheartened and went to his father and told him about his struggle. His father explained to him that, while he might be the best in the world at building dikes to hold back the water, he could not do what needed to be do by himself. He must enlist the aid of his friends and family that together they might create a structure that could hold back the sea for a day.
It was a week later that the boy, this time accompanied by his friends and family came to the shore. When the tide had gone out they worked furiously together and made an enclosure. When the tide came back in, the weak places were able to be reinforced and the dike stood throughout high tide. As the water receded, more dikes were added and in a matter of weeks enough ground was reclaimed from the sea to build several houses.
The young man thanked those who had helped and then together they thanked God because the Lord had given them strength to build, he had created the material with which they built, and had given them good weather without which all they had done would have been impossible.
We thought of this story, first because of the parable of the wise man who built his house upon a solid foundation, a rock. But when we think about that foundation we realized that it was not simply one rock that is the foundation for us but many. One man, though he was also God, came into the world and established the cornerstone of faith and upon that rock countless others of faith added their own effort and in many cases blood so that the great monument to the Father, the Church might be built.
We each must become like the rock that Jesus called in St. Peter. We must strengthen ourselves with what is good through prayer and discernment so we, like the friends and family of the Dutch boy in the story, might stand together against the storm of the world, remaining firm in the faith to God’s glory. We must reject what comes from the evil one and test each notion against the measure of the love of God and His Son.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture today is “The House Upon the Rock and The House Upon the Sand” by William James Webb, c. 1860
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