Jesus said to his disciples:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’
Then I will declare to them solemnly,
‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’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.
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.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.
When Jesus finished these words,
the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their scribes.
— Matthew 7:21-29
The peace of the Lord be with you. Could anything be more devastating than arriving before our Heavenly Father, our Creator, the One who has counted every hair on our head and have Him say, “I do not know you?” I cannot imagine a worse or more painful fate than to be a stranger to God.
Jesus tells us today that to be a true child of God, to bear His resemblance, we must do God’s will. To do the will of God is like building on a solid foundation that will not be destroyed or washed away by the storms that can happen in life. The will of God is the only reality — everything else is an illusion — a rejection of life, a rejection of love.
My prayer for us today is that our hearts will grasp and desire this reality, this ultimate good, that we are children of God sent here to do His work. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.