Reflection for December 5
Jean Thibodeau, Warwick Rock
As I write this, Hurricane Helene is bearing down upon the Florida panhandle, threatening all in its path with massive wind and flooding. How appropriate that both readings for this day use the image of building upon ROCK, not sand, as the way to create an enduring structure, impervious to storms. While the reading from Isaiah basically refers to God as a Rock in whom to place our trust, the gospel reading demands even more of us.
This passage comes at the very end of three chapters in Matthew dealing with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has already instructed the disciples in the Beatitudes and in many rules for living, including how to pray (the Lord’s Prayer is part of the Sermon as well). Now, at the end, Jesus compares those who have HEARD but do not ACT on it to those who build houses upon sand. They might be beautiful, but when storms come, they are “utterly ruined.” However, those who ACT upon what they have heard are building houses – lives – that will withstand rain, wind, and flooding.
Where I now live, surrounded by four of the Great Lakes, I often have occasion to walk gorgeous beaches, encountering rocks that have been buffeted by wind, rain, and snow. Many are smoothed to a beautiful sheen, but nevertheless remain stalwart against all weather that has been thrown at them. Sometimes I take a smaller one home with me as a reminder that, while life may throw great difficulties in my way, rocks not only endure but are brought to a more splendid existence for all the buffeting. Perhaps in Advent, we might think of one or more of the ways Jesus asks us to go beyond hearing and put faith into ACTION in this world. Every ACT – of reconciling with those who have angered us, of comforting those in mourning, of extending mercy, of working for justice, of practicing prayer – is a rock with which to build the kind of house that will not collapse in the storm.
Christine Doyle