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“The House Upon the Rock and
The House Upon the Sand”
by William James Webb, c. 1860 |
Readings for Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: 2 Kings 24:8-17
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.
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Commentary on 2 Kgs 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 after the new king ascends the throne (history records that the wall around Jerusalem was breached on March 16, 587 B.C.). 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.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9
R. (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.
R. 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 neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
O Lord, how long? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low.
R. 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.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
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Commentary on Ps 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9
Psalm 79 provides a penitential note similar to what is found in Baruch 1:15. It is a communal lament in which the assembly reflects upon the punishment endured because they have sinned against God, and disregarded his law. This lament is thought to reflect upon the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 587 BC. The singer asks God how long his anger at them will last, and pleads for pardon and deliverance. Following this admission, there is a plea for mercy and a promise of atonement.
CCC: Ps 79:9 431
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Gospel: 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.
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Commentary on Mt 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 who 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 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.
The Lord also makes a distinction between saying and doing. The metaphor of the “house built on rock” refers to those who hear the word of the Lord from an authentic source and act upon it. The house built on sand is a metaphor for those who either are not taught authentically (by false prophets) or who do not act upon what they have been given.
CCC: Mt 7:21-27 1970; Mt 7:21 443, 1821, 2611, 2826; Mt 7:28-29 581
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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, come around the sides of his wall, knock it down, and wash over it.
The boy was becoming very sad and disheartened. He 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 done 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. The Lord 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 other people of great faith added their own effort, and in many cases their 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 the person of 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] The picture today is “The House Upon the Rock and The House Upon the Sand” by William James Webb, c. 1860.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
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