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| Art by Erin Leigh |
Matthew 7:21–29
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; 25 and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; 27 and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.”
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Catholic Exegesis:
The Second Vatican Council teaches that if we are to derive the true meaning from the sacred texts, attention must be devoted “not only to their content but to the unity of the whole of Scripture, the living tradition of the entire Church, and the analogy of faith. […] Everything to do with the interpretation of Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church, which exercises the divinely conferred communion and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God” (Dei Verbum, 12).
St. John Paul II, when he promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church, explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum).
Cited in the Catechism:
Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraphs 443, 581, 1821, 1970, 2611 and 2826.
Commentary
Doing the will of God
7:21–23. To be genuine, prayer must be accompanied by a persevering effort to do God’s will. Similarly, in order to do his will it is not enough to speak about the things of God: there must be consistency between what one preaches—what one says—and what one does: “The kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Cor 4:20); “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas 1:22).
Christians, “holding loyally to the Gospel, enriched by its resources, and joining forces with all who love and practise justice, have shouldered a weighty task on earth and they must render an account of it to him who will judge all men on the last day. Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of the Father, and who manfully put their hands to the work” (Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 93).
To enter the Kingdom of heaven, to be holy, it is not enough, then, to speak eloquently about holiness. One has to practise what one preaches, to produce fruit that accords with one’s words. Fray Luis de León puts it very graphically: “Notice that to be a good Christian it is not enough just to pray and fast and hear Mass; God must find you faithful, like another Job or Abraham, in times of tribulation” (Guide for Sinners, book 1, part 2, chap. 21).
Even if a person exercises an ecclesiastical ministry that does not assure his holiness; he needs to practise the virtues he preaches. Besides, we know from experience that any Christian (clerical, religious or lay) who does not strive to act in accordance with the demands of the faith he professes, begins to weaken in his faith and eventually parts company also with the teaching of the Church. Anyone who does not live in accordance with what he says, ends up saying things that are contrary to faith.
The authority with which Jesus speaks in these verses reveals him as sovereign Judge of the living and the dead. No Old Testament prophet ever spoke with this authority.
7:22. “That day”: a technical formula in biblical language meaning the day of the Judgment of the Lord or the Last Judgment.
7:23. This passage refers to the Judgment where Jesus will be the Judge. The sacred text uses a verb which means the public proclamation of a truth. Since in this case Jesus Christ is the Judge who makes the declaration, it takes the form of a judicial sentence.
Building on rock
7:24–27. These verses constitute the positive side of the previous passage. A person who tries to put Christ’s teaching into practice, even if he experiences personal difficulties or lives during times of upheaval in the life of the Church or is surrounded by error, will stay firm in the faith, like the wise man who builds his house on rock.
Also, if we are to stay strong in times of difficulty, we need, when things are calm and peaceful, to accept little contradictions with a good grace, to be very refined in our relationship with God and with others, and to perform the duties of our state in life in a spirit of loyalty and abnegation. By acting in this way we are laying down a good foundation, maintaining the edifice of our spiritual life and repairing any cracks that make their appearance.
Jesus teaches with authority
7:28–29. Jesus’ listeners could clearly see the radical difference between the style of teaching of the scribes and Pharisees, and the conviction and confidence with which Jesus spoke. There is nothing tentative about his words; they leave no room for doubt; he is clearly not giving a mere opinion. Jesus spoke with absolute command of the truth and perfect knowledge of the true meaning of the Law and the Prophets; indeed he often spoke on his own authority (cf. Mt 5:22, 28, 32, 38, 44), and with the very authority of God (cf. Mk 2:10; Mt 28:18). All this conferred a singular force and authority on his words, such as had never been known in Israel (cf. Lk 19:48; Jn 7:46).
Chapters 8 and 9 of St Matthew deal with a series of miracles worked by our Lord. The first Christians had vivid experience of the fact that the glorified Jesus was still present in his Church, confirming its teaching by signs, by miracles (Mk 16:20; Acts 14:3).
And so, St Matthew, after giving the nucleus of Jesus’ public teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5–7), goes on now to gather a number of miracles to support our Lord’s words. Some commentators call this section—chaps. 8 and 9—“the works of the Messiah”, parallelling what they called “the words of the Messiah” (the discourse on the mount). In chapters 5–7 we see Jesus as the supreme lawgiver and master who teaches with divine authority, a unique authority superior to that held by Moses and the prophets. Now, in chapters 8 and 9, he is shown as endowed with divine authority over disease, death, the elements and evil spirits. These miracles worked by Jesus Christ accredit the divine authority of his teaching.
Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome
