REFLECTION Sunday´s Gospel

9th Sunday of Year A

(6 March 2011)

Fr James McTavish, FMVD

Wise Builders

This week I have been giving a retreat to the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation founded by Mother Theresa. It is an 8 day retreat in silence for them to re-charge their spiritual batteries and afterwards they can once again work zeal and fervour with the poorest of the poor. Their work is not easy as the harvest is big and the labourers are few. They told me stories of people dying in their arms, of orphaned children being left on their doorstep , of how sometimes there are so many poor that the Sisters get a new name “Sister, rice” (Sister Rice!) It is quite challenging listening to them especially when you think of how many rich Catholics the Philippines has! One thing I see in the different experiences of the Sisters is that little by little they are building up the Kingdom, building up the lives of many people.

Mother Theresa shared one example that struck her from the land of milk and honey, Australia. She was visiting an aboriginal reserve where many of the aborigines live in very meagre conditions. Mother (as she is known by the Sisters) went to one man’s house or shack. He was living alone, with no one to care for him. For Mother this is the greatest poverty. She said “being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.” Mother offered to clean the place where the aboriginal man was living. Upon cleaning she found a beautiful but dusty old lamp in the corner. Mother asked the man if he ever lit it. “For whom would I light it,” he said sadly, “no one ever comes to visit me.” They agreed that every day the Sisters would visit him to light the lam, and little by little he started to be the one. Mother forgot about that incident and two years later she got a message from the man “Tell Mother, my friend, the light she lit in my life is still burning.”

Love builds up the person, it helps them to grow. A life without love is like a flower without light – it will never blossom. Jesus in the Gospel today reminds us to build on love. How does Jesus teach us how to love? There are many theories about how to love today, not all of them correct! It is by listening to the words of Jesus and putting them into practice. He compares such a person to a man building a house on rock – “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.” (See Matthew 7:21-27) The whole emphasis of the readings today is to be rooted in the word of God. In the psalms of the Church, the image of God as a rock is given more than thirty times like in the psalm today “O Lord, be my rock of refuge.” It reminds us to build our loves on rock, on God’s ways, to put what he tells us in practice and to have a solid foundation to our lives and all our projects.

In the first reading from Deuteronomy (Dt 11, 18. 26-28) Moses tells the people “Therefore, take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your forehead.” What if we do not spend time to listen to what God is telling us? What can be the consequences? Even we can be doing “good” things! Even those who are prophesying in the Lord’s name, casting out demons and doing miracles in the Lord’s name – sounds like a pretty good list of holy things – what does Jesus say in the Gospel? What does he say to such people? “Then I will declare to them solemnly ‘I never knew you. Out of my sight, you evildoers!’ It is surely a strong reminder for each one of us. What is vital is to do the will of God. These people were doing good things but not what Jesus asked of them. What is Jesus asking you and I? Often you need to search for the will of God – he reveals it but little by little. There is a very nice poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman. It reads “Lead kindly light, amid the circling gloom, lead thou me on. The night is dark, and I am far from home, lead thou me on. Keep thou my feet I do not ask to see, the distant scene – one step enough for me.” It is a step by step journey like the journey of a car at night. One spiritual writer said that it is like the lights of the car. They do not light up the whole way to the destination, only the next 100 yards. But being continually faithful to the path in front one can surely reach the destination.

It is a sad fact that in the West many people have abandoned the Word of God and feel that God himself has no place in their life. A friend of mine works in an advice centre in England for those with problems and he told me that the people are lost. They think the only thing they need is more money but they have totally lost their way. What is happening? Why do so many lives seem to collapse? Because they are not built on rock. We need someone bigger and stronger than us in this journey – the Holy Spirit is that very companion. If we do not try to put the words of Jesus into practice then he tells us that we are building our lives on sand. When the strong winds come, the house will collapse.

Looking at the life of Mother Theresa, she was invited by the Lord to be his light. She tried to put that into action, despite many trials and darkness of the soul. But look at the Sisters today, all around the world, bringing light to so many in darkness. Each one of us too is called to be faithful to our calling, to try to put into action what the Lord desires from us. Let us be wise builders, not foolish ones. May we strive wholeheartedly to live out the challenges of the Gospel, listening to Jesus in his Word and putting it into practice. Amen.