It is so easy for us to develop and then maintain a relationship with God based on natural religiosity. This leads us to only pay lip serve to God without any significance. We also develop a self-righteousness. We begin to judge and condemn others. As Catholics we have a lot of good pious practices whose purpose is to bring us a deeper conversion, bring us into a better relationship with God and others. Yet it is so easy for us to do the pious practice – fasting, praying, a holy hour, a rosary, act of mercy – without deepening our personal conversion. We get stuck in the external.
Jesus points this out in today’s Gospel. Just saying “Lord, Lord” is not enough to be a true Christian. It is important to renounce our own personal life and will, to surrender our own selves to God. Advent is a time of austerity and re-centering our lives on our relationship with God and neighbor. Yet December is the time of year when we spend more time, energy, and money on ourselves and material goods. The rock of our lives has become our salary, medical insurance, retirement plan, science, and bank account. That is where we go for help when we have a problem in life.
The rock of our lives is not material things, nor only pious practices, nor just recognizing God. Many people get stuck there with those attitudes, stuck in natural religiosity. Today Jesus is calling us to do much more. If we are to be pilgrims who show hope to those around us, we must move into a deeper conversion and show signs of renouncing our very selves in service of God and others. That is true communion, the true rock of our life.
Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
Image: https://digitalmissioners.com/2019/12/matthew-721-24-27/