One Minute Reflection – 27 June – Thursday of the Twelfth week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Matthew 7:21–29 and the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour
“Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”…Matthew 7:24-25
REFLECTION – “The Lord speaks to us of our foundation… our Christian life and He tells us that this foundation is the rock”. We must, therefore, “build the house”, namely, our life, on the rock that is Christ. When St Paul speaks of the rock in the desert, He is referring to Christ, the only rock “that can give us security”. …there is always a temptation to live our Christianity away from the rock that is Christ, the only One who gives us the freedom to say “Father” to God. This temptation has given life to various categories of Christians without Christ. ..The “light Christian”, who, instead of loving the rock, love beautiful words and turns towards a god of spray, a personal god, with superficiality and flimsiness. This temptation still exists: superficial Christians who indeed believe in God but not in Jesus Christ. They are modern Gnostics!
The second category includes those who believe that Christian life must be taken so seriously that they end by confusing solidity and firmness with rigidity. These rigid Christians, think that to be Christian it is necessary to wear mourning and always to take everything seriously, paying attention to formalities, just as the scribes and Pharisees did. Tthese are Christians for whom everything is serious. They are today’s Pelagians who believe in the firmness of faith and are convinced that salvation is the way I do things. I must do them seriously, without any joy. They are very numerous. They are not Christians. They disguise themselves as Christians.
In short, these two categories of believers do not know Jesus, do not know who the Lord is, do not know what the rock is, they have none of the freedom of Christians. Consequently, they have neither joy nor freedom. In their life there is no room for the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Lord’s teaching for today, is an invitation to build our Christian life on the rock that gives us freedom”….Pope Francis – ‘Santa Marta’ – Thursday, 27 June 2013
PRAYER – God our Father, You open the gates of the kingdom of heaven to those who are born again of water and the Holy Spirit. Increase the grace You have given, so that the people who have been purified from all sin, may not forfeit the promised blessing of Your love. Grant that we may ever keep Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, before our eyes and do all in Him and through Him and for Him and may the prayers of our Mother of Perpetual Succour may ever guide and bear us in her care. We make our pray through Christ, our Lord, in union with You and the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen
AnaStpaul 