Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Gen 16: 1-12, 15- 16; Mt 7: 21-29
Dc. Larry Brockman
My what a mess we make of things when we try to bypass the will of God and take things into our own hands by acting on conventional wisdom. Today’s first reading is a perfect example.
Sarai makes a big mess of things. God had promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. But rather than trust in God to give her a son, Sarai takes matters into her own hands and arranges for Abraham to have a son through Hagar her servant girl. This leads to jealousy, pride, envy, abuse, and much more, especially when one considers the historical implications of it all, namely the almost constant conflict between Ishmael’s descendants and the descendants of Isaac. What a mess.
By contrast, we have Jesus’ words in the Gospel. “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.” And when Jesus says we are to do the will of his Father, that means we have to listen to his words and act on them. Yes, we have to act on them, rather than just say “Lord, Lord”. Then he talks about houses built on rock and sand. How can we put all that into practice? Doing the will of the Father means understanding and doing God’s will for us. And that means understanding God’s will in general.
Our home is the United States of America. Is it built on sand or rock? Well, let’s see. As of yesterday, marriage is defined as the union of any two people who want to get “married”, thanks to the Supreme Court. And only 60 % of our children live in homes with a mom and a dad. But marriage and family are the basic institutions of society.
There are 4,000 abortions a day in the United States of America. Contraception and in-vitro fertilization are accepted as good things. And we are on the verge of or have legalized euthanasia in several states. Yet, the right to life is our most important right.
We can’t say school prayer in our public schools. Our government and public meetings begin, at best, with a moment of silence. And as of August 1 of this year, our Catholic Institutions may all have to close or else willfully violate God’s law. So,
our religious liberty is in jeopardy.
If you ask Catholics what the Church teaches on many topics, they either don’t know; don’t care; or don’t agree with it. In other words, we don’t understand the will of God for us.
My dear brothers and sisters, let’s face it, our house, the USA, is built on sand.
And so, it is time for us to do what Jesus says we need to do- establish our house on rock. 25 % of the US population identify themselves as Catholic. If we all believed and acted on it, not just said “Lord, Lord” then this country could only be built on rock. Unfortunately, we are not all united; and we are not all engaged.
Hopefully, all of you are responding to the Bishop’s call for a Fortnight of Prayer between June 25 and July 4th. But we need to do more than that. We all need to become involved in restoring God’s will. Because we, just like Sarai, have made a mess of things.