Listen to these words and act on them

Fr Paul reads today’s Gospel from Matthew (7: 21-29), which brings to an end the Sermon on the Mount. Fr Paul says Jesus ends this sermon with both a threat and a promise.

The threat we hear at the beginning is that we can’t just call out the Lord’s name, we also need to do the will of God.  Our actions must be louder than our words.

To emphasise this Matthew, the Gospel writer, uses the parable of the two builders. Through this parable, we realise that if we hear and act we are like the sensible builder but if we hear the word and don’t act then that is a sign of foolishness. This parable reinforces the message Jesus gives that we do need to do the will of the Father.

At the end of this Gospel, we hear about the impact this sermon and the teachings of Jesus had on the people who heard them…. They left a ‘deep impression’ because he taught ‘with authority not like their own scribes’.

As part of our prayer today, Fr Paul says we might reflect on the theme of this Gospel and ask ourselves, ‘Do we actually do the will of God or do we just pay it lip service?’