Christ Is Our Firm Foundation

𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐄 𝟐𝟔, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐅𝐇 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄

𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐆𝐞𝐧 𝟏𝟔:𝟏-𝟏𝟐, 𝟏𝟓-𝟏𝟔

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟏𝟎𝟔:𝟏-𝟓 “𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝.” 𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋:

𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝟕:𝟐𝟏-𝟐𝟗

𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: “𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆, ‘𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅, 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅,’                   

                          𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏,” (𝒗.21) 

The Gospel reading today should lead us to two great truths. One is the value of what we hear and knowing what is true and what is not. The other is the certainty of judgment on the day of reckoning when God will settle all our accounts, judge our sins and reward us for our faith.

         This passage which practically wraps up the series of teachings of Jesus beginning from the Sermon on the Mount when Our Lord handed down a code of ethics for all believers which must be understood and embraced in its entirety. This means that the Beatitudes is not a matter of multiple choice but a code that has to be taken as a whole.

         And today, we see Jesus laying down the parameters of how it is to be a Christian and here He puts a premium on the importance of obedience in the life of every believer. Jesus knew whereof He speaks because he was aware of the habit of the religious leaders during his time who practically have the Scriptures written all over them and yet not doing what the law says. And this is what He doesn’t want to happen to us that is why He stresses in this Gospel the need to listen and not just hear.

         In the same way, there is an ocean of difference between what we say and what we do and this is what Jesus is pointing out in this Gospel today because the words that we utter and our actions reveal the kind of person that we are and we could be committing boo-boos without knowing it and this is the purpose of this Gospel reading today.

         What this means in terms of the realities of everyday life is that we can never show others especially the unbelievers, the doubters, the atheists and agnostics how wondrous the Christian life is unless our lives manifest the fruits of the Holy Spirit in the way we talk and live. This is also what Jesus meant when He said in 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒕 6:21 “𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐” because what comes out of our lips are what is in our hearts and what Jesus is saying is that there must be unanimity and harmony in what we say and do.

         There is no doubt that there are some among us who are proficient in speech. But mere words alone cannot take the place of what we do. Walk the talk is a phrase that we often hear and this simply means that what we do must be a reflection of what we say. This may be true but this idiom has often been abused and misused by those who are critical of another for the simple reason that they themselves do not subscribe to what they say.

          Why? Because to walk the talk, one must also walk-the-chalk which simply means follow the rules or follow the standard. This is the reason why Jesus in the Gospel told his disciples and he is telling us now that it would be hypocritical of us if we call him Lord and not do what He says.

         What Jesus is impressing upon us here is that a true disciple is one who heard, listened and obeyed the Will of the Father in heaven. He wants us to build our house (our life) on solid rock (faith) that will withstand the storms we face in life but this is premised on doing what is right instead of just talking about it. In other words, what we do cannot be separated from what we believe or say.

          Although each person is different from the other, some are famous and popular, some are not and there are times when our professional conduct clouds our nature. Some people are also transparent in their ways, some are not and some are so guarded that what they project is what they want others to see. But at the end of the day, what we do will reflect what is truly in our hearts.

         To illustrate, Jesus used as an example the two builders (𝒗𝒗.24-27) who represent two different men in this life and this parallelism could very well apply to our own life. Both builders used the same material and the same plans, and the world cannot tell the difference in the two houses each of the builder built similar to the difficulty in differentiating the wolf among the sheep.

         But when the storm came which is really the time of testing – the house not built on the rock easily crumbled. The true and authentic Christian is founded on the Rock who is none other than Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:11). For all intents and purposes, righteousness is not based on a church or a creed but on Jesus who died for all the believers. A true child of God is proven by resilience and overcoming the storms that come. A true Christian is proven by his or her obedience to Christ. One is not merely a hearer of the Word, but he or she is also a doer (Jam 1:22-25).

          The Bible is full of accounts of false believers who fall away in time of testing. The people who earlier fled from Egypt to cross the desert to the promised land wanted to go back when things became difficult and many of the so-called Christians in Rome also deserted Paul during his time of need (2 Tim 4:9-18).

         But note how true believers are able to withstand their trials and challenges, e.g., Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Peter, Paul and all the other Apostles and in modern times we can learn from the example Archbishop Oscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Father Jacques Hamel, Sister Dorothy Stang and Martin Luther King Jr. and many others who proved their deep faith by standing through the storm. They were all built on a Rock.

         This was the reason why Jesus exposes the lack of obedience among the Pharisees who knew the Scriptures but do not follow them and this is what He is telling us to avoid. What Jesus is actually saying is that obedience to what He tells us will give us a solid foundation within which to build our lives on.

         Simply put, to disobey what the Lord wills for us will invite disaster in our lives. Many times we spend time pondering what went wrong or what is going wrong in our lives. Everything seems to have spun out of control. We lost our job. Our finances are nearly at the bottom of the well. Our relationship is in tatters. Even our worship seems dry. We try to solve our problems our own way. We wrack our brains thinking of why we suddenly found ourselves in the abyss of misfortune. And the only thing that we haven’t looked into is our relationship with Our Lord. Have we obeyed God and His Word?

         This is what Jesus is telling us in this narrative for us to become like the builder who digs down deep and to lay the foundation of our house (heart) on the rock. What this means is that we who are pilgrims on this earth must make it a habit to listen to His Word attentively and put it into practice because to remain anchored on His Word will establish in us a foundation that cannot be shattered by the storms that pass our lives.

         I grew up in a Catholic environment, went to a Catholic school but the influences of the world clouded my vision and I found myself drowned in the world. I used and abused the power I had as a media practitioner to gain influence and money through unscrupulous means. I succeeded and I thought I already have everything but I was unhappy because I wanted more.

          And Our Lord found me and brought me to the Bukas Loob sa Diyos Covenant Community and I spent some time trying to figure out how the Words of Our Lord will fit into my way of life as the Word of God is totally opposed to the world I was in and I knew then that something has to give.

          And guess what? I chose to heed the Word of God because in them I found life. I found joy. It became the foundation that has made me strong against the onslaught of the enemy. Anyone of you can do it. All you need to do is to come before the Lord, humble yourself, remove your cloak of superiority, pride and arrogance. And Jesus assures us that on judgment day, those who listened and obeyed His Word and the Will of the Father will be rewarded with eternal joy. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 – 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘦 26, 2025)