I NEVER KNEW YOU

2Kings 24,8-17; Ps 78; Mt 7,21-29
28 JUNE
Time runs out. You enter eternity. Jesus did not make the Discourse of the Mountain to the pagans, but to his disciples. On fidelity to his Word they will be received in Paradise. For the non-loyalty they will be excluded forever. Jesus first said: “Enter through the narrow gate, for the door is wide and the way to destruction is spacious and many are those who enter there. How narrow is the door and narrow the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it!”. Whom does Jesus now address and respond? Not to the few who took the narrow path, but to the many who took the wide and spacious way. These, the many, present themselves and want to justify themselves, adducing that their life has been in some way lived for the good: “In that day many will say to me: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And in your name have we not worked many wonders? And have not we performed many wonders in your name?” To prophesy in the name of the lord is good work. To cast out the demons in the name of the Lord is a good work. Performing many miracles in the name of the Lord is also a good work”. To them, who have dedicated their lives to doing these good works, so Jesus replies: “I have never known you. Get away from me, you who work iniquity!” Why this exclusion response from the kingdom for eternity?

The answer must be found in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus did not make up any prophet in his Discourse. No one has been asked to work miracles. No one has been commanded to drive out demons. Instead, everyone was asked to live his Word, even in the smallest details and peculiarities. True prophecy is a perfect life as a faithful and obedient disciple. The greatest miracle is to conform one’s life to the Law of Christ Jesus. The devil that must necessarily be cast out is the one that lurks in thoughts and in the heart with the sole purpose of separating Christ from his Word, his Word from Christ and the disciple from the Word and from Christ. If today every disciple of Jesus fulfilled these three works, the whole world would be converted to Lord Jesus. Instead, everyone thinks of dedicating himself to works outside of him, irrelevant to his life of obedience to the Word of his Lord and Saviour. Jesus declares him with eternal firmness. He will know only those who will be dressed in the suit of his Word.

“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. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ “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.” When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

This is the eternal declaration of Christ the Lord. To each one the obligation to believe in it for his eternal salvation. No creature either from hell or heaven or from the earth as well might come and assert the opposite. Even if the whole world were to believe and hold contrary things, the Christian is obliged to remain faithful to Christ. Tomorrow, when the time is over, there will not be the world and not even those who today say the opposite to welcome him in the eternal dwellings, but only Lord Jesus. If we are dressed in the suit of his Word, He will welcome us. Otherwise he will also say to us: “I have never met you. Get away from me, you who work iniquity!” It’s his Word.

Wise Virgin, Angels and Saints make us wise and intelligent to live in the Word.