Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 374

“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.

As Americans watch their infrastructure of highways, water mains, gas mains, and sewers disintegrate because of partisan wrangling, we hear Jesus speak of “my words” and spiritual infrastructure. We know how important infrastructure is, be it physical, intellectual, or spiritual; but we cannot begin to address its complexity due to our political paralysis. Even routine precautions, like wearing facemasks during a respiratory pandemic, become a political statement under these circumstances. Fortunately, the Catholic Church in the United States, though certainly troubled, is not as divided. 

The Psalmist wondered, “Foundations destroyed, what can the just do?” A highly individualized spirituality, focusing only on “Jesus and me,” cannot be bothered with building or maintaining the infrastructures of a church. They assume these foundations are always there, that someone else will manage and maintain them while the isolated saint takes care of themself. If they add anything it’s carping and criticism. Their interest is “heaven,” which they expect to occur at any moment.

And yet Reality continually invades the privacy of the solipsistic Christian. They cannot always retire to their inner rooms and close the door to pray to their Father in secret. 

The Gospel of Saint Matthew, which occupies the summer months of our weekday lectionary, has much to say about the infrastructure of faith; that is, the Church. No one can keep the faith if no one shares that faith with other people. We learn to practice faith within the Church's traditions of rituals, stories, song, and customs; we learn to make sacrifices from those who make these sacrifices. They do not happen spontaneously.

Matthew 18 presumes there is a well-organized, disciplined church and addresses some of its concerns:

• the care that the disciples must have for one another in respect to guarding each other’s faith in Jesus (Mt 18:6–7),
• seeking out those who have wandered from the fold (Mt 18:10–14),
• repeatedly forgiving fellow disciples who have offended the Church (Mt 18:21–35),
• And the obligation to correct the sinful fellow Christian; even to excommunicate them should that be necessary. (Mt 18:15–18).

A child may be forgiven for taking the Church for granted; but adults are not allowed that indulgence. Those who refuse to build and maintain Church might suppose they have heard the word of God, but they do not keep it. They are barren and bear no fruit; they will be thrown out to wither, and then to be burned. 

But "those who listen to these words of mine and act on them will be like the wise man who built his house on rock. They do not collapse."