Advent Week 1 Thursday

Readings: Isaiah 26:1-6; Psalm 118; Matthew 7:21, 24-27

It is the simplest of parables, more an analogy than a parable: the one who builds his house on a rock is wise since the house will stand up to all kinds of weather, whereas the one who builds his house on sand is foolish because the house will not stand up to very much weather.

What 'building one's house on rock' means is a bit more abstract: it is 'doing the will of the Father', not just hearing it, receiving it, understanding it, perhaps even agreeing with it. Wisdom means living in accordance with the Father's will and putting into practice what that will desires.

The link with today's first reading is the word 'rock'. Isaiah too speaks about a Rock to which men and women can look for security, strength and safety, and he tells us immediately that the Lord is the Rock. Another way of saying the same thing, then, and Jesus is, once again, standing in the line of the prophets of Israel: wisdom means building your house, establishing your life, on the Rock that is the Father, the God of Israel. Foolishness means neglecting to do this and choosing some other foundation for your life. Whatever that other foundation might be it is equivalent to sand since sooner or later some kind of challenge will disturb it, subvert it and bring it down.

We can add two further glosses. The city, even if initially built strong and secure on the Lord, can be brought down by human pride. It seems to be the only thing that can bring down a city originally built on the Lord who is our Rock. If we turn to pride and injustice we effect a kind of 'transfoundationalism', substituting for the original foundation an inferior one, equivalent to sand, and so the city can be brought low. There is a temptation to pride that goes with the building of any human city. Witness Babel. Witness all the projects and plans, empires and achievements, that have turned sour and collapsed because of injustice, greed and pride. Babylon, the great city. The empires of the Book of Daniel that have arisen, swaggered for a bit, and then collapsed. So we must continue to build on the humility of God not on the pride of man.

The other gloss is this: if we are to do what the Father wills, what is it? We are told in the Scriptures that God wants all men to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. We are told that God's will is that Jesus should lose nothing of what he has been given by the Father.  God's will is that all who see Jesus and come to believe in Him should have eternal life. So to work for these things is to act according to the Father's will: working for human salvation, working that all might come to know the truth, working that all might belong to Jesus, working that all might come to see and believe in Jesus.

So building our house on rock means entering into the missionary desire of God, acting and living in ways that will attract and enable people to come to know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. This is eternal life, Jesus tells us in Saint John's gospel, and it is God's will that all men and women should have eternal life. Our task is to collaborate with God in this work and we do that best in acting justly, loving tenderly and walking humbly with our God.