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.... 
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.

Zorastrianism has been called the oldest organized religion, and the progenitor of all other religious beliefs. The Persian prophet Zoraster taught that there are two ways to live, two routes to take: the way of good and the way of evil. While every human action has multiple consequences, some beneficial and others detrimental, our vindication is determined by our good and evil choices. Founders, prophets, and teachers of every subsequent religion recognize that principle of the two ways. And Jesus echoes it in today's selection from the Sermon on the Mount. 

His teaching also reflects the Jewish understanding of wisdom and foolishness. Wisdom comes from God. Jewish proverbs describe her as God's daughter and companion in his building projects. 

“The LORD begot me, the beginning of his works,
the forerunner of his deeds of long ago;
From of old I was formed,
at the first, before the earth....
When he fixed the foundations of earth,
then was I beside him as artisan;
I was his delight day by day,
playing before him all the while,
Playing over the whole of his earth,
having my delight with human beings.
Now, children, listen to me;
happy are they who keep my ways. (Proverbs 8: 22-23, 30-32)

Foolishness is wicked. If wicked people enjoy success, popularity, and prosperity, they are nonetheless fools, reprehensible and doomed. 

Americans have a similar sense about foolishness. We despise it and remind one another, "There's no cure for stupid." 

I often recall the Grail translation of Psalm 37: vs35 --

I have seen the wicked one triumphant, 
towering like a cedar of Lebanon. 
I passed by again; he was gone. 
I searched; he was nowhere to be found.

The Lord's metaphor of houses built on rock or sand, representing virtue and wickedness, applies equally to individuals, families, churches, corporations, cities, and nations. It is especially appropriate and comes immediately to mind when we consider the deterioration of our roads, bridges, buildings, and cities. Infrastructure is necessarily expensive, time-consuming, and complex. Everyone has many opinions about every major project, its urgency, worth, and how it should be accomplished. Many people think their suggestions should be taken seriously -- even as "the Gospel truth!" -- and that anyone who disagrees is either stupid or wicked or both. Even when the project is completed and successful, naysayers will insist it should have been done differently, or wasn't necessary in the first place. 

Conversations about infrastructure are necessarily political because they involve many people and all levels of society. Everyone must make sacrifices to build and maintain infrastructure, and the sacrifices are invariably apportioned unequally. 

The principle of infrastructure also proves that the two ways are more than the measures of an individual; they apply also to the aforementioned families, churches, corporations, cities, and nations. Communities are vindicated or condemned by the standards of wisdom and foolishness, goodness and evil. 

The Christian faithful hope that our participation in public decisions are both wise and welcome; and we pray that the Lord might recognize our personal testimony to wisdom even when the results were unfortunate, foolish, and evil. We will continue to champion the dignity of every human being as political decisions are made, and when some are made badly. And we pray that God will show mercy to fools.