A reading from the prophet Isaiah (26:1-6)
That day, this song will be sung in Judah:
‘Ours is a strong city.
He has set up the salvation of walls and ramparts.
Open the gates, that the righteous people may come in,
a people that keeps faith!
Those of trustful mind you keep in peace,
in peace because they trust in you.
Trust in the Lord for ever,
for the Lord is a rock of ages.
He has brought low the dwellers on the heights,
the lofty citadel he lays low,
brings it to the ground, flings it down in the dust.
It will be trodden under foot,
by the feet of the oppressed, the steps of the poor.’
A contrast between a ‘strong city’, where the faithful people dwell, and a ‘lofty citadel’, where others live ‘on the heights’, lies at the heart of this song to be sung in Judah. The people of the city are ‘righteous’ (tsaddiq). They ‘keep faith’, they are ‘of trustful mind’. These are the virtues which lead to peace (shalom). The Lord is described as a ‘rock of ages’, on whom the people can rely. By contrast those who dwell ‘on the heights’, in their ‘lofty citadel’, are brought to the ground, flung into the dust, to be trodden under foot by the very people they have oppressed, and ‘by the steps of the poor’. This passage extols faith, and condemns human pride.
Psalm 118 (117) As the righteous entered the city in the Isaiah reading, so the just enter the Lord’s ‘own gate’ in this momentous psalm of the temple liturgy.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Matthew (7:21,24-27)
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of Heaven, only the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible person who built a house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid person who built a house on sand. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had!’
Once again we have a contrast between two buildings, and an emphasis on faith, all in the context of ‘entering’ the kingdom of heaven. To hear the words of Jesus and to act on them is to build one’s house on rock. Whatever is thrown against this house does not bring it down. While the contrast in the first reading was between the faithful righteous people and the proud dwellers on the heights, the contrast here is between those who have the wisdom to heed the words of Jesus, and those who fail to do so. These are the final words of the Sermon on the Mount, inviting all disciples to ‘do the will’ of the Father by putting into practice the better justice (5:20) preached by Jesus.
How strong is my building of faith?
Pray for clarity and commitment.