On Rock

June 26, 2008
Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

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. Matthew 7:24-25

Piety

Slow me down Lord. Let me sit at your feet and listen attentively to the Word that you speak to me. Send your Spirit to help me listen and act on what you have asked of me. Amen.

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/062608.shtml

Scribes faithfully copies and passed along the teachings and the traditions of earlier prophets. However, those who heard Jesus preach today’s lesson concluded that this was something new, something original. The people had not heard these lessons before. So they concluded that Jesus’ teaching came from his own authority, not from invoking earlier sources.

What was the message that so moved them?

Some messages are heard so often that they become cliché, trite. You have heard countless times in different phrases: “Do as I do, not as I say.” “Don’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk.” These phrases contrast words said and deeds done. Been there. Done that.

Jesus draws a different distinction. It is not just the words are said which matter. What matters is that we pay attention. Jesus doesn’t want to waste his breathe. He did not give up life in heaven with his loving father to join us down here in our earthy existence to be ignored. He wants us to hear what he has to say. Even the Father admonishes us that this is his beloved son. “Listen to him.”

So much gets in the way of what we hear.

Think about these words that your HEAR during your next conversation, your next ritual, or your next liturgy. Pray about being able to truly listen before you attend the next celebration of the Mass.

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.

Listen and act. So many obstacles get in the way of our listening and our acting.

As people talk, what else are you doing? Reading the newspaper, checking your e-mail on the Blackberry, typing up the minutes to the meeting, eating, driving, daydreaming.

Imagine being in the temple with Jesus for today’s Gospel. If the message you were getting was from Jesus and you were thinking about the shopping list for Giant or Safeway, how to beat the traffic getting to the Redskins/Nationals/golf course/etc., what might you miss? Would you dare to be pre-occupied with something else when He was speaking? Would his words go in one ear and out the other? Or might they not even make it into one ear? How can you possibly listen – let alone act upon those words – if your mind, your heart or your hands are otherwise engaged?

What if the Lord is using someone else to send you a message? Your spouse? Your child? Your parish priest. A co-worker? The homeless man or woman on the park bench? Yet you were concerned about following your Mapquest directions, finding a cheap gas station, or scouting for a rest area. What might you miss?

In our fast-paced culture, we are encouraged to multi-task. Yet Jesus values the person who is focused. Remember, Martha was worried about the too many things but Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened.

As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary (who) sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Luke 10:38-42

Action

I can not help but think about the people in Darfur who are facing genocide today.

Someone is being killed because their skin color is too dark or too light. Someone is being killed because they were born on the wrong side of the border. This is genocide. How can we be silent when people are crying out for life?

When we discovered the internment/death camps -- Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Majdanek -- we did not even have a term for the crime that was being committed. According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, it was not until 1944 when a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder, including the destruction of the European Jews. He formed the word "genocide" by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing. In proposing this new term, Lemkin had in mind "a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves." The next year, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg charged top Nazis with "crimes against humanity." The word “genocide” was included in the indictment, but as a descriptive, not legal, term.

We vowed to never let it happen again. But then the world did not act when genocide happened in Rwanda. We vowed to never let it happen again. But then the world did not act when genocide happened in Kosova. We vowed to never let it happen again. Will the world make those facing death wait until a new president is elected in the U.S. before it acts?

Urge all your leaders to support the victims in Darfur. Urge them to make sure that the peacekeepers have the resources required to protect those they serve.

Listen to their cries. And ACT ON THEM!