4 December 2025 - Thursday of the 1st week of Advent
Isaiah 26:1-6; Matthew 7:21, 24-27
Homily
The few verses of the Gospel we have just read are the end of what we call the Sermon on the Mount, that long discourse in which Matthew brings together all the most important elements of Jesus' teaching. After these few verses, Matthew adds a conclusion, which we have not read, which is: ‘When Jesus had finished these discourses, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.’
The Sermon on the Mount had begun, of course, with the Beatitudes: ‘Blessed are the poor, the merciful, the peacemakers, those who mourn...’ Each of these Beatitudes was a call to action to the disciples to eradicate poverty, sadness and war from society through their active love. Secondly, Jesus had asked His disciples to do something much more radical than what the Law required. ‘You have been told... I tell you.’ "You have been told to love your neighbour, I tell you to love your enemies... If someone asks for your shirt, give him your coat as well".
And this had led to Jesus' teaching on hypocrisy, that is, the recommendation not to perform any religious act that does not correspond to the truth of life. All religious practices are absolutely useless if the Beatitudes are not practised, if the hungry are not fed, if the afflicted are not comforted, if enemies are not loved, etc.
And all this led to the conclusion of this long discourse, which we have in today's Gospel. Be careful, Jesus recommends, to build your house on solid foundations and not on sand. The house built on rock is the house of the man who, says Jesus, ‘hears my words (that is, all the previous teaching) and puts them into practice’. On the other hand, the house built on sand is that of the man who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ who can even prophesy in Jesus' name, who can even cast out demons and perform miracles in Jesus' name, but who does not live in his daily life, especially in his relationships with others, the radical demands of the Sermon on the Mount.
Advent is a time for each of us to examine the foundations on which our house is built.
Armand Veilleux