Thursday, Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

The image in Jesus’ parable of a house built on rock and a house built on sand has certain resonances for us today. We are familiar with houses built in places where they should not have been built, such as on the natural flood plains of a river. As a result, when storms of heavy rain come, the excess water has nowhere to go and that can cause flooding further on down the river. The quality of a house relates as much to where the house is built, what it is built on, as to the actual fabric of the house. The most important part of a house is often what is not visible, the foundations. By means of this parable Jesus is inviting us to reflect on the foundations of our lives. Are our lives built on solid foundations, on rock, so that when the storms of life come, we will stand firm? As with the house, the most important feature of our lives is what is below the surface, the foundations of our lives. Jesus is calling on us to make him the foundation of our lives. We do that by listening to his word and putting it into practice. When our lives are shaped by the Lord and his word, when they are directed by the Lord’s Spirit, they are solidly grounded and we will be able to withstand the worst that life can throw at us. In one of his letters, Paul speaks about being ‘rooted and grounded in love’, in the love of Christ. When our lives are grounded in Christ’s love for us and we allow that love to flow through us, then we walk and stand on solid ground, and we will become solid ground for others in need of it.