House on the Rock or practitioners of vain things

(Mt 7:21.24-27)

 

 

Pope Francis said: "In order to give himself to us, God often chooses unthinkable paths, perhaps those of our limitations, our tears, our defeats.

 

The Lord's call is not Manichean, but profound.

Our behaviour has fascinating roots. Lights and shadows of our being remain in dynamic relationship.

At times, however, our discomforts or distortions are the result of an excess of 'light' - detached from its opposite. 

Such excess is willingly associated with the claim to exorcise the dark aspect in us, which we would like to conceal for social reasons.

It seems to us that the business card should only reflect our bright, loose, serious, and performing appearance.

Perhaps, a moral style all of a piece - at least at first glance.

However, those who become attached to their bright side and even try to promote it for reasons of look (also ecclesiastical), established culture, habit (also religious), run the risk of enhancing the other side.

Beware: in every man there is always a side that misfires, that fails; and not one-sidedly.

Perhaps it is precisely in those who preach the good that there is the most pronounced danger of neglecting its co-present opposite - which sooner or later will break through, will find its place.

Blowing up the whole house of cards. But to achieve something alternative and absolutely not contrived.

 

For those who embark on a path of 'perfection', their own counterpart only seems a danger.

And conditioned by the models, we continue to play [our] already identified 'part'.

Yet in the dark side are hidden resources that the light-only side does not have.

In the dark side we read our character seed.

Here is the therapy and healing of the discomforts that we rush to conceal (in the family, with friends, in the community, at work).

The dark aspects [selfishness, coldness, closure, introversion, sadness] lurk within; no point in denying it.

It is rather worth considering them as a source of characterising primordial energies.

It is indeed concealment - sometimes depression itself - that makes us fish for unimaginable solutions.

As if we were a grain planted in the earth, which wants its existence. And it finally wants natural life, which develops its capacities.

It is precisely the emotions that we dislike and ourselves detest - like the muddy, dark earth - that reconnect us with our deepest essence.

In short, disliked emotional states will be the well from which other ideas, other guiding 'images', new insights; different sap, come to us. And change.

Light does not possess all possibilities, all dynamism. On the contrary, it not infrequently seems to be declined [by the traditions themselves] in a fictitious, reductive way.

In chiaroscuro, conversely, we no longer pretend. For it is the foundation of the house of the soul.

 

All this we consider, for a solid harmony, which arises from within.

Paradoxes of the Personal Vocation: if we did not follow it to the full, we would continue to follow misconceptions, or the styles of others.

And we would become sick. Evil will take over.

If structured on an abstract, local, or bogus identity, this is where the storm could destroy everything.

In our trial and error, we must keep all aspects - which we have come to know over time, and realised are part of us - beside us.

This will change the solidity of our relationship with ourselves, others, nature, history, and the world.

 

Conformity between conduct and intention of the heart overcomes hypocrisy, but conformity between Word and life is not set up by practising automatisms, nor by surrendering to others' convictions.

In the post-lockdown we are realising this sharply.

There was a time when it was thought that formation (especially of the young) also chiselled the soul, and everything flowed naturally into choices; into means, results, external works, and even dreams: "Tell me what you do and I will tell you who you are".

Instead, qualitative attunement with the Mystery and the Word of Christ is not achieved by setting it up, but is found within (each of us) enigmatically, and from the depths - as a pure secret Gift, for creative independence.

Haste, fear of failure, the culture of concatenation and stability, intentions (even 'spiritual' ones) or, conversely, flattery of tranquillity; ambitions, cravings to be recognised, lack of detachment, ambition, fear of being excluded, difficulty in shifting one's gaze... all lead to ignorance of the Mystery.

Deprived of depth, we will be condemned not to dig deep even within ourselves; perpetually at the mercy of particular roles, of spheres and their events; of occasional or local relationships.

Hasty builders are content to build directly on the ground; looking only at what they see and experience (on the spur of the moment). They do not dig the house down to the ground - into the depths, into the gold of self.In the inner world and its hidden power, everything is overturned: the primacy is of Grace, which displaces, because it only takes into account the essential, inexplicable reality - and our dignified autonomy.

The rest will unfortunately be destined to collapse ruinously, because it does not remain founded on the Word, on character [although magmatic, but with great potential]... nor on the vocational relationship with God and things, or on the most genuine communion [conviviality and shared richness of differences].

 

We experience a laceration, even in times of emergency: the inner world is stronger and more convincing, yet the outer world does not want to give way to the immediate goals. Indeed, we are still drawn to them.

But the latter we know well that they do not reactivate any stages of specific weight, as our young inner being does spontaneously - almost like a baby we carry in gestation.

Generally speaking, even on the spiritual path we immediately fall into the coveted character we would like to be: here we do not grow, we are only turned on by futilities, nor do we realise that they are not our 'owners'.

Of course, the immediate external goal does not suffer the wait of the long necessary evolution of having to give birth to oneself (even in anguish and loneliness) stage after stage; which is activated and reactivated without comfort and security.

Yet we are born to take flight, not to tracing and becoming photocopies in the soul.

Thus all that is valuable will be in the oscillation, because a path of personal specific weight is configured according to the gift of our uniqueness.

And uniqueness can be achieved in the process of every side of us, of every side of the personality - even apparently petty or sketchy. Even unflattering from the point of view of religious tranquillity; which will also have had its value.

 

 

Jesus does not intend to distinguish the good from the bad [cf. vv.15-20 and the parallel passage in Lk 6:43-45] in a trivial way: he wants us to live fully, in integral oneness, and perceive well.

The Lord does not propose an imprisoned destiny; rather, a reversal of meaning.

His is an admonition to sharpen our gaze, and set it within - not leave it outside, to observe ephemeral results, those of obviousness and hype; and then stop, don't experience too many jolts... as if we were in a relaxation zone.

The Unit of measurement in Christ is not the immediately perceptible to the eye, nor is it 'progress' per se, but rather: 'the value of every part'.

 

It is precisely the awareness of limitation that becomes a transformative principle in us. And every imperfection calls to Exodus.

To deny one's boundaries is to allow oneself to be hijacked by common views, devoid of Mystery - with horizons reduced to a single 'word'.

It is e.g. the severe crisis that stimulates the upheaval of a system that is also economic in appearance but competitive and dehumanising, with corrupt inner principles - even though they once appeared to us as absolutes.

Why not be content, if we can roughly manage it? Because forced identification has taken away freedom, even the freedom to admit that we are made of light and shadow.

It is not disturbance that deprives women and men of eloquent vocational emancipation.

Even each one who beats his chest, does so in a particular way; and recognises himself in symbiosis with his own Name.

Then to each age of life - as to each era - touches its 'sin', which is not a monster but a symptom that speaks precisely of the personal, moral, cultural, social Calling.

Even if one does not like it, the oscillation must be understood, not criticised and accused.

I would even say welcomed and re-elaborated - not simplistically rejected, with attitudes of artificial distance or gestures of ambiguous virtue, which make one external and return to the starting point.

 

Today, the lack of complete life and beautiful relationships, the general upheaval, the restlessness of the soul - the nervousness, the dissatisfaction - force us to abandon both the ancient and fascinating devotional securities and the disembodied 'à la page' sophistications.

All in favour of concrete and personal situations, within the horizon of the unrepeatable vocation and the leap of Faith that opens up to coexistence.

"Too pure water has no fish" [Ts'ai Ken T'an].

Accepting ourselves without reservations will introduce us into a dizzying, awe-inspiring experience: with the amazement produced by the recovery of co-present, opposite and shadowed sides. As many as brothers and sisters.

Perhaps we will find that they are the most activating and fruitful.

Not the ethics of perfection and homologated distinctions, but the vituperated chaos and our inner demons will paradoxically become the best companions along the way, and the only true ones; coryphaeans of an astonishing Mission.

 

After all, the works themselves are the fruit of our thoughts and desires. The latter certainly also spring from a good, varied training, but not in a mechanical sense.

It is also crucial here not to be foiled. Bad discernment destroys the authentic Rock, which coincides with one's spontaneous Guidance to completeness.

The stable foundation of our itinerary is the Freedom to accept and the Freedom to correspond to the unrepeatable character - our own - of the instinct to fulfil ourselves.

In fact, Jesus detaches himself not only from ancient religion, but even from the - rather crude - messianic strands of early times (e.g. Jas 3:11-12).

This is not why the Master denies the profound spirit of the ancient Holy Scriptures, indeed he captures their heart: Qo 3:14; 7:13-18; Sir 37:13-15 [and many other passages (unbelievable for the mentality in which we have been educated)].

So it is not enough to say: 'Lord, Lord' (vv.21-22). It is not enough to formally recognise the Son of God.

One must sift through his call in being, make it one's own and understand it fully, so that it is not corrupted and disfigured into inessential forms of puerile external conformity.

 

In insecurity, many people demand expressions of power, seek overt strength; they settle for moral paradigms, look for forms of immediate assurance, or crave renowned guides [who perpetuate and comfort their defensive path].

Paralysing illusions... even in the path of Faith.

On this path one does not build expected happiness, nor any solidity at all, but day after day one's own sadness - as is evident from too many events, finally from the most occult forms of compensation (now unmasked).

There is no guru who can put things right at the root.

Our Seed is what it is: it is necessary to discover its virtues, even and especially the unexpected ones - which derive from the essence and magmatic and plastic forms of even opposing energies.

It is useless to 'cure' oneself according to a conformist homologation that does not belong to the personal Core.

The soul has an autonomous life, suspending contexts, distances; it exists within and also outside the passing of time - like Love. 

Everyone is a multiplicity of co-existing faces - to be given space for greater wholeness.

This matters, and allying oneself with one's limits: embracing what the surrounding environment or the conventionalist cultural paradigm - which defends its territory - deems perhaps inconclusive (so on).

We preside over other boundaries.

What we do not like is perhaps our best part.

In any case, giving voice to tensions means finally being able to name them, to accommodate them worthily - so that they have fuller joys.

And let them cross the threshold of the joy of living, hence of authentic reliability.

By sweeping away the anxiety of imperfection, we will find a more harmonious, energetic steadiness.

By embracing frailties along with rebelliousness, we will not live half-heartedly; on the contrary, we will experience fullness of being (vital and snappy).

By not feeling trapped all the time, we will be able to fly away.

But that certain tranquil situations are counterfeit narrowness and cut-offs of the soul, we can realise at once: in the radical discomforts that surface.

 

Many continue in vain to seek futile confirmations: in the search for extraordinary gifts or in the meticulousness of observances, or in fashions of thought. All external realities.

However, this is not the pedagogy that educates and launches life in the Spirit out of precisely extrinsic mechanisms.

Nor is it enough to truly conquer the storms by 'doing God's will' in a disciplined manner, but without friendly self-consciousness.

No form of inculcated exteriority can convince us.

Let alone make us become a 'rock' - or small bulwark - to persuade, capacitate, strengthen others.

 

The difference between common religiosity and personal faith?

Life in the humanising and divine condition of preciousness opens up varied paths - of abysses even, but full of inner experiences; of unimaginable quests and discoveries, where we can be ourselves.

In the sphere of Faith, there are no longer sacred times, places, knowledge, models - all epidermal, if plastered - that are not also unprecedented and personal.

Union with the Lord, the Rock from which we have been as if cut and extracted, is neither binary nor groove, but a fundamental option.

It leaves free rein on the particular inclination and colour of each one.

 

 

With the entire Sermon on the Mount - here at the end of the day - Jesus aims at arousing in people a critical consciousness about trivial and external solutions. This is common among the leaders of ancient popular and official religiosity.

To build a new kingdom, public liturgies overflowing with beautiful signs with the right creed, and resounding social obsequies - not even the most conspicuous gifts - are not enough.

False security is that of those who profess ... but perform only conformist acts and reflect aligned ideas - so they feel OK.

There is no sick person or recluse worse than the one who considers himself healthy, arrived and uninfected: only here there is no therapy, no revival.This will be seen at the time of the storm, when the need to translate the personal relationship with the Lord into life, starting with oneself and the ability to accept the gamble of Love, will become evident.

Merits not rooted in intimately firm convictions - gestures produced by intrigue, calculation and contrived attitudes - will not withstand the whirlwind of the test.

 

"Practitioners of vain things", that is, inconsistent [this is the meaning of the Greek text that introduces the Gospel passage (v.23)] are the standard-bearers of an empty spirituality, which despite its varnish, with even spectacular sides, has nothing to do with God.

Conveniently, the 'masters' who stand in the way of the personal implications seem to be willing to go back on any adherence, plotting the reverse of their own proclamations - because they are prisoners in merit [instead of as they appear: leaders].

They do not yet reveal the divine Face, but rather a calculating, qualunquistic opposite.

They live to get by - along with the club to which they belong - and obtain only immediate recognition, obsequiousness, and handouts of consensus around them.

And this despite the great disciplines of censorship that they advocate:

They do not correct the separation between teaching and personal commitment: they may preach the true God and (always) great things every day - but as if by trade.

The intriguers multiply high-sounding or symbolic formulas and gestures, like soporific or exciting drugs... but they are the first not to believe what they say and repeatedly impose on others.

Full of obtuse claims on people, they do not understand the Father, God of the desperate, exiled and mocked, who resurrects the non-elect - the deprived of a future; not the insured for life, commanded by self-interest and appearance.

 

Are there foundations behind a façade of butterflies? One understands this in the storm, and if one becomes a 'rock' even for the unseen - not tourists of the 'spirit' who praise praise (v.21) and do not risk.

Therefore, security does not come from conforming to customs and fulfilments, nor from being admired (at least) on a par with others. Fiction that makes the common house unhealthy.

Our specific and figure of Faith is not a 'cultural' identity drawn from protocols or mainstream manners - a plot that plays on appearances and not on the one strong point: the attitude of pilgrims in Christ.

We are steadfast only in the priestly prophetic royal dignity, which is given in unrepeatable Gift and will never be the fruit of deriving from consensus.

Nor of appearing, of saying and not saying, of building up; of adapting to the forces in the field, of struggling to float.

We live to follow a profound Vocation: Root, Spring and Motor of our intimate fibres; related to the dreams and naturalness of each one.

 

Only trusting the soul is an authentic platform, true salvation and medicine.

The Mission will reach the existential peripheries, starting from the Core.

 

It seems senseless, paradoxical, unbelievable, but for every Called One, the Rock on which he can and must build his way into the field... is Freedom.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

When the storm hits your house, do you imagine a great fall? What is the rock on which your community is built? Is it interested in your naturalness or does it want to conform to you?

Do you know people with strong prophetic, apostolic or thaumaturgical activity, who give the feeling of a familiarity with God that is only extraordinary or circumstantial, perhaps apparent?

What is the reason, in your opinion? Do you think they have ever really surrendered to themselves and the quintessence of their Calling by Name?

 

 

The desire for a Home

Dear young friends,

I bid you a hearty welcome! Your presence rejoices me. I am grateful to the Lord for this meeting with the warmth of your friendliness. We know that "where two or three are united in the name of Jesus, he is in their midst" (cf. Mt 18:20). But you are here today in far greater numbers! I thank each and every one of you for this. Jesus is therefore here with us. He is present among the young people of the Polish land, to speak to them of a house, which will never collapse, because it is built on rock. This is the Gospel word we have just heard (cf. Mt 7:24-27).

In the heart of every man there is, my friends, the desire for a home. All the more so in a young heart there is the great yearning for a home of one's own, one that is solid, to which one can not only return with joy, but also with joy welcome every guest who comes. It is the longing for a home in which love, forgiveness, the need for understanding are the daily bread, in which truth is the source from which peace of heart flows. It is the longing for a home of which one can be proud, of which one should not be ashamed and of which one should never mourn the collapse. This longing is but the desire for a full, happy, successful life. Do not be afraid of this longing! Do not evade it! Do not be discouraged at the sight of collapsed houses, thwarted desires, vanished longings. God the Creator, who instils in a young heart the immense desire for happiness, does not then abandon it in the laborious construction of that house that is called life.

My friends, a question imposes itself: "How to build this house?". It is a question that has surely already appeared many times before your heart and that will return many more times. It is a question that you must ask yourself not just once. Every day it must be before the eyes of your heart: how do we build that house called life? Jesus, whose words we have heard in the wording of the evangelist Matthew, exhorts us to build on rock. For only then will the house not collapse. But what does it mean to build the house on the rock? Building on the rock means first of all: building on Christ and with Christ. Jesus says: "Therefore whoever hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who has built his house on the rock" (Matthew 7: 24). We are not dealing here with empty words spoken by just anyone, but with the words of Jesus. It is not a question of listening to just anyone, but of listening to Jesus. It is not a question of doing just anything, but of fulfilling the words of Jesus.

Building on Christ and with Christ means building on a foundation called crucified love. It means building with Someone who, knowing us better than ourselves, says to us: "You are precious in my eyes, ...you are worthy of my esteem and I love you" (Is 43:4). It means to build with Someone who is always faithful, even if we lack faithfulness, because he cannot deny himself (cf. 2 Tim 2:13). It means to build with Someone who constantly stoops to man's wounded heart and says: "I do not condemn you; go, and henceforth sin no more" (cf. Jn 8:11). It means building with Someone, who from the height of the cross stretches out His arms, to repeat for all eternity: "I lay down my life for you, man, because I love you". To build on Christ means finally to base all one's desires, expectations, dreams, ambitions and all one's projects on his will. It means saying to oneself, one's family, one's friends and the whole world, and above all to Christ: "Lord, in life I do not want to do anything against You, because You know what is best for me. You alone have the words of eternal life" (cf. Jn 6:68). My friends, do not be afraid to focus on Christ! Long for Christ as the foundation of life! Ignite in yourselves the desire to build your life with Him and for Him! For he cannot lose who stakes everything on the crucified love of the incarnate Word.

Building on the rock means building on Christ and with Christ, who is the rock. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul, speaking of the chosen people's journey through the desert, explains that they all "drank ... from a spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ" (1 Cor 10:4). The fathers of the chosen people certainly did not know that that rock was Christ. They were not aware that they were accompanied by the One who, when the fullness of time would come, would become incarnate, taking on a human body. They did not need to understand that their thirst would be quenched by the very Source of life, capable of offering living water to quench every heart. They drank, however, from this spiritual rock that is Christ, because they longed for the water of life, they needed it. On the road of life, we are perhaps sometimes unaware of the presence of Jesus. But this very presence, alive and faithful, the presence in the work of creation, the presence in the Word of God and the Eucharist, in the community of believers and in every man redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ, this presence is the inexhaustible source of human strength. Jesus of Nazareth, God who became Man, stands beside us in good times and bad and thirsts for this bond, which is in fact the foundation of authentic humanity. We read in Revelation these significant words: "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him, I will dine with him, and he with me" (Rev 3:20).

My friends, what does it mean to build on rock? To build on the rock also means to build on Someone who has been rejected. St Peter speaks to his faithful of Christ as a "living stone rejected by men, but chosen and precious in the sight of God" (1 Pet 2:4). The undeniable fact of Jesus' election by God does not conceal the mystery of evil, because of which man is capable of rejecting the One who loved him to the end. This rejection of Jesus by men, mentioned by St Peter, continues throughout human history and even reaches our own times. It does not require great acuity of mind to discern the multiple manifestations of Jesus' rejection, even where God has allowed us to grow. Time and again, Jesus is ignored, he is mocked, he is proclaimed king of the past, but not of today, let alone tomorrow, he is shelved in the closet of issues and people that should not be spoken of aloud and in public. If in building the house of your life you encounter those who despise the foundation upon which you are building, do not be discouraged! A strong faith must go through trials. A living faith must always grow. Our faith in Jesus Christ, to remain so, must often be confronted with the lack of faith of others.

Dear friends, what does it mean to build on rock? Building on the rock means being aware that you will have setbacks. Christ says: "The rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew, and they came upon the house...". (Matthew 7: 25). These natural phenomena are not only a picture of the manifold contrarieties of human fate, but also indicate its normal predictability. Christ does not promise that a downpour will never fall on a house under construction, he does not promise that a ruinous wave will not sweep away what is most dear to us, he does not promise that raging winds will not carry away what we have built sometimes at the cost of enormous sacrifices. Christ understands not only man's aspiration for a lasting home, but is fully aware also of all that can reduce man's happiness to ruin. Marvel not, therefore, at the contrarieties, whatever they may be! Do not be discouraged because of them! A building built on rock is not a building removed from the play of natural forces, inscribed in the mystery of man. To have built on rock is to be able to count on the knowledge that in difficult times there is a sure force to be relied upon.

My friends, allow me to insist: what does it mean to build on rock? It means building with wisdom. Not without reason does Jesus compare those who hear his words and put them into practice to a wise man who has built his house upon the rock. For it is foolishness to build on sand, when one can do so on rock, thus having a house that can withstand every storm. It is foolishness to build your house on ground that does not offer the guarantees of holding up in the most difficult times. Who knows, perhaps it is even easier to base one's life on the quicksand of one's own worldview, to build one's future far from the word of Jesus, and sometimes even against it. It remains, however, that he who builds in this way is not wise, because he wants to persuade himself and others that no storm will break in his life, that no wave will hit his house. To be wise is to know that the solidity of the house depends on the choice of the foundation. Do not be afraid to be wise, that is, do not be afraid to build on rock!

My friends, once again: what does it mean to build on the rock? To build on the rock also means to build on Peter and with Peter. For to him the Lord said: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Mt 16:16). If Christ, the Rock, the living and precious stone, calls his Apostle a stone, it means that he wants Peter, and together with him the whole Church, to be a visible sign of the one Saviour and Lord. Here, in Krakow, the favourite city of my Predecessor John Paul II, the words about building with Peter and about Peter certainly do not surprise anyone. Therefore I say to you: do not be afraid to build your life in the Church and with the Church! Be proud of your love for Peter and for the Church entrusted to him. Do not be deceived by those who want to set Christ against the Church! There is only one rock on which it is worth building a house. This rock is Christ. There is only one rock on which it is worth resting. This rock is the one to whom Christ said: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church" (Matthew 16: 18). You young people have come to know well the Peter of our time. Therefore do not forget that neither that Peter who is watching our meeting from the window of God the Father, nor this Peter who now stands before you, nor any subsequent Peter will ever be against you, nor against the building of a lasting house on the rock. On the contrary, he will commit his heart and both hands to helping you build life on Christ and with Christ.

Dear friends, meditating on Christ's words about the rock as a suitable foundation for the house, we cannot fail to note that the last word is a word of hope. Jesus says that despite the raging of the elements, the house did not collapse, because it was founded on the rock. In this word of his there is an extraordinary confidence in the strength of the foundation, the faith that fears no denial because it is confirmed by the death and resurrection of Christ. This is the faith that, years later, will be confessed by St Peter in his letter: "Behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, choice, precious, and he who believes in it will not be confounded" (1 Pet 2:6). Certainly "He shall not be confounded...". Dear young friends, fear of failure can sometimes hold back even the most beautiful dreams. It can paralyse the will and make one unable to believe that there can be a house built on rock. It can persuade us that longing for home is only a youthful desire and not a plan for life. Together with Jesus say to this fear: "A house built on rock cannot fall"! Together with St Peter say to the temptation of doubt: "He who believes in Christ will not remain confused!". Be witnesses of hope, of that hope that is not afraid to build the house of its life, because it knows that it can count on the foundation that will never collapse: Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Pope Benedict, Address to young people Krakow 27 May 2006)