It collapsed and was completely ruined

5 DECEMBER (Mt 7,21.24-27)

The Holy Scripture often speaks by concepts. It very often speaks by images, by history and this is much more eloquent than any concept of the mind. Today, Jesus tells us that our house will fall into ruin if we place ourselves outside of his Word. Let us read for a moment the ruin of Saul and Judas, who placed themselves out of the Word of the Lord.

As they pressed their attack on Israel, with the Israelites fleeing before them and falling mortally wounded on Mount Gilboa, the Philistines pursued Saul and his sons closely, and slew Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, sons of Saul. The battle raged around Saul, and the archers hit him; he was pierced through the abdomen. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, lest these uncircumcised come and make sport of me.” But his armor-bearer, badly frightened, refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell upon his sword and died with him. Thus Saul, his three sons, and his armor-bearer died together on that same day. When the Israelites on the slope of the valley and those along the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they too abandoned their cities and fled. Then the Philistines came and lived in those cities. The day after the battle the Philistines came to strip the slain, and found Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa. They cut off Saul’s head and stripped him of his armor, and then sent the good news throughout the land of the Philistines to their idols and to the people. They put his armor in the temple of Astarte, but impaled his body on the wall of Bethshan. When the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their warriors set out, and after marching throughout the night, removed the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and brought them to Jabesh, where they cremated them. Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted for seven days (1Sam 31,1-13).

During those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place). He said, “My brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. He bought a parcel of land with the wages of his iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his insides spilled out. This became known to everyone who lived in Jerusalem, so that the parcel of land was called in their language ‘Akeldama,’ that is, Field of Blood. For it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his encampment become desolate, and may no one dwell in it.’ And: ‘May another take his office’ (At 1,15-20).

The reign of Saul was a real disaster. From the day of his disobedience to the Lord, he did not have a day of peace. He was tormented by the evil spirit of jealousy and it was his undoing. Without the light of the Lord he committed suicide in battle. Judas also followed him in the same gesture. Their house really fell into ruins, and so it is with every other house from which the Word of the Lord was removed and exiled. It is a warning and an example to all.

“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. “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.”

Jesus teaches us that true religion is made of most pure obedience to every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Obedience must be constant, instantaneous, prompt, immediate, forever, without ever failing even in a single word. As Jesus was tempted in the desert so that he went out of the obedience and entered paths of true autonomy from the will of the Father, so it is every day for the Church of Christ the Lord. She is perpetually tempted so that she abandons the way of listening, of obedience and of fidelity to the voice of her Lord and enters human trails. Today, this is the failure of a Christian: the abandonment on our part of the listening to the voice of our Redeemer and Saviour. We do a lot, but we are not obedient.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us real listeners of Jesus.