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| “The House Upon the Rock and The House Upon the Sand” by William James Webb, c. 1860 |
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading 1: 2 Kings 24:8-17
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old
when he began to reign,
and he reigned three months in
Jerusalem.
His mother’s name was Nehushta,
daughter of Elnathan of
Jerusalem.
He did evil in the sight of the
Lord,
just as his forebears had done.
At that time the officials of
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
attacked Jerusalem, and the city
came under siege.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
himself arrived at the city
while his servants were besieging
it.
Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah,
together with his mother,
his ministers, officers, and
functionaries,
surrendered to the king of
Babylon, who,
in the eighth year of his reign,
took him captive.
And he carried off all the
treasures
of the temple of the Lord and
those of the palace,
and broke up all the gold
utensils that Solomon, king of Israel,
had provided in the temple of the
Lord, as the Lord had foretold.
He deported all Jerusalem:
all the officers and men of the
army, ten thousand in number,
and all the craftsmen and smiths.
None were left among the people
of the land except the poor.
He deported Jehoiachin to
Babylon,
and also led captive from
Jerusalem to Babylon
the king’s mother and wives,
his functionaries, and the chief
men of the land.
The king of Babylon also led
captive to Babylon all seven thousand men of the army,
and a thousand craftsmen and
smiths,
all of them trained soldiers.
In place of Jehoiachin,
the king of Babylon appointed his
uncle Mattaniah king,
and changed his name to Zedekiah.
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Commentary on 2 Kgs 24:8-17
Following his father’s death, the
young king, Jehoiachin, reigns for a very short period in Jerusalem. King
Nebuchadnezzar of Neo-Babylon has already been attacking Judah for some time,
and reaches Jerusalem just three months after the new king ascends the throne
(history records that the wall around Jerusalem was breached on March 16, 587
B.C.). Following its capture, we hear of the great Diaspora, and sack of the
temple, as all of the leadership and soldiery are sent into exile.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9
R. (9) For the glory of your name, O Lord,
deliver us.
O God, the nations have come into
your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy
temple,
they have laid Jerusalem in
ruins.
They have given the corpses of
your servants
as food to the birds of heaven,
the flesh of your faithful ones
to the beasts of the earth.
R. For the glory of your name, O
Lord, deliver us.
They have poured out their blood
like water
round about Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
We have become the reproach of
our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those
around us.
O Lord, how long? Will you be
angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like
fire?
R. For the glory of your name, O
Lord, deliver us.
Remember not against us the
iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come
to us,
for we are brought very low.
R. For the glory of your name, O
Lord, deliver us.
Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your
name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name’s sake.
R. For the glory of your name, O
Lord, deliver us.
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Commentary on Ps 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9
Psalm 79 provides a penitential
note similar to what is found in Baruch 1:15. It is a communal lament
in which the assembly reflects upon the punishment endured because they have
sinned against God, and disregarded his law. This lament is thought to reflect
upon the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 587 BC. The singer
asks God how long his anger at them will last, and pleads for pardon and
deliverance. Following this admission, there is a plea for mercy and a promise
of atonement.
CCC: Ps 79:9 431
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Gospel: Matthew 7:21-29
Jesus said to his disciples:
“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.
Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in
your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in
your name?’
Then I will declare to them
solemnly,
‘I never knew you. Depart from
me, you evildoers.’
“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.
And everyone who listens to these
words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his
house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted
the house.
And it collapsed and was
completely ruined.”
When Jesus finished these words,
the crowds were astonished at his
teaching,
for he taught them as one having
authority,
and not as their scribes.
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Commentary on Mt 7:21-29
This is the final section of the
first of five great discourses of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. In it, he
broadens his attack on false prophets to include those who perform acts in his
name, but lead lives of sin. He uses the analogy of the house built upon sand
and the house built upon rock to indicate that those who have a deep faith and
act out of that faith have a strong foundation and can stand against adversity,
while those who give the faith lip service, for others to see, but do not have
that deep faith will fall. He will not even recognize them when they come
before him in final judgment.
The Lord also makes a distinction
between saying and doing. The metaphor of the “house built upon rock”
refers to those who hear the word of the Lord from an authentic source and act
upon it. The house built on sand is a metaphor for those who either are not
taught authentically (by false prophets) or who do not act upon what they have
been given.
CCC: Mt 7:21-27 1970; Mt 7:21 443, 1821, 2611, 2826; Mt
7:28-29 581
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Reflection:
We are reminded of a story about
the young Dutch boy who wished to hold back the sea so he could build a home by
a wave-swept shore. Each day he would go to the very edge of the shore at low
tide, and erect a wall as quickly as he could in hopes that it would prevent
the water from washing over the place where he wanted to build when the tide
came back in. Each day, no matter how fast and how sturdily he built, the water
would rush back, come around the sides of his wall, knock it down, and wash
over it.
The boy was becoming very sad and
disheartened. He went to his father and told him about his struggle. His father
explained to him that, while he might be the best in the world at building
dikes to hold back the water, he could not do what needed to be done by
himself. He must enlist the aid of his friends and family that, together, they
might create a structure that could hold back the sea for a day.
It was a week later that the boy,
this time accompanied by his friends and family, came to the shore. When the
tide had gone out they worked furiously together and made an enclosure. When
the tide came back in, the weak places were able to be reinforced and the dike
stood throughout high tide. As the water receded, more dikes were added and in
a matter of weeks enough ground was reclaimed from the sea to build several
houses.
The young man thanked those who
had helped, and then together they thanked God, because the Lord had given them
strength to build. The Lord had created the material with which they built, and
had given them good weather, without which all they had done would have been
impossible.
We thought of this story, first,
because of the parable of the wise man who built his house upon a solid
foundation, a rock. But, when we think about that foundation, we realized that
it was not simply one rock that is the foundation for us, but many. One man,
though he was also God, came into the world and established the cornerstone of
faith, and upon that rock countless other people of great faith added their own
effort, and in many cases their blood, so that the great monument to the
Father, the Church, might be built.
We each must become like the rock
that Jesus called in the person of St. Peter. We must strengthen ourselves with
what is good through prayer and discernment so we, like the friends and family
of the Dutch boy in the story, might stand together against the storm of the
world, remaining firm in the faith to God’s glory. We must reject what comes
from the evil one and test each notion against the measure of the love of God
and His Son.
Pax
[1]
The picture today is “The House Upon the Rock and The
House Upon the Sand” by William James Webb, c. 1860
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible
with the exception of the Psalm and its response which were developed by the
International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is
not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
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