Coffee With God

Reflection Matthew 7: 21,24-27

The Gospel calls us to become Christians of action and truth and not merely Christians of words. So often we are tempted to be satisfied with our recitation of set of prayers and believe that we are doing all that a Christian should do. Do we fall into the category of those of whom Jesus speaks about in the Gospel today: “Not everyone who says, Lord Lord….” The temptation is to live our faith away from the rock that is Christ. We have the false confidence that the rosaries, the novenas and the prayers are of greater importance than our acts of charity. The Gospel invites us not to be just minimalists. Instead, our faith needs to be rooted on the rock of Christ. When our faith touches the rock, there is safety. Jesus himself says so with vivid examples: “the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew”, but the house stood strong against them. On the contrary, when there are only words, they are like sand that drifts away. The temptation to be ‘Christians of words’ results in a Christianity without Christ. Words detached from practice is hypocrisy. We find Jesus admonishing the Pharisees for knowing everything but not putting what they know into practice. So he tells the people: “do what they tell you, but not what they do, because they don’t do what they say.” It is necessary that a house be built on a solid foundation to survive the forces of nature. This does not mean that the house owner could remain complacent after laying a strong foundation. It would be foolish to limit his attention to the foundation alone and then carelessly build the walls and the roof with poor quality materials. Similar dangers can threaten our spiritual life as well. We do begin on a strong foundation of love of God and love for the Word of God. But as life moves on, we get distracted from God, our relationship with God gets limited to reciting some prayers and going for a Sunday Mass. This can be compared to using cheaper materials of the world, and build up our life on those convenient and world- friendly resources – which are sand on the shore. This sand is not solid. This is merely an act of “dressing up” like a Christian, but such lives are constructed without foundations. The rock, on the other hand, is the Lord. He is the strength. But many times, those who trust in the Lord may not have many successes and they may remain hidden… but they are steady.