THE SPIRITUAL MAN BUILDS ON A SOLID FOUNDATION

 

THURSDAY, TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 

(Optional Memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop and Doctor)

2 Kings 24:8-17; Ps 79:1-5,8-9; Mt 7:21-29

The fall of the House built on Sand

We have established that the Christian religion and its attendant spirituality is nothing given only to the physical or senses. Christianity is a revealed religion and has its foundation in the spiritual realm. The reason is that the head of the Church is Jesus Christ, who is spiritually and mystically present with her at all times and in every place she exists and professes her faith. In addition, Jesus Christ lives in each Christian by the Holy Spirit he shares with them. By the Spirit, he regenerates each of us who form part of his body. In this spiritual sense, the Church is more than her physical manifestation. She is present in every soul, formally or informally, regenerated by faith in the truth of God, who accepts and lives the will of God. The words of Jesus Christ in the gospel confirm the spiritual structure of the Church. “It is not those who say to me, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes, many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?” Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!”

Those who have embraced the external form of religion without caring for the essential spiritual form are not known by the Lord. Jesus does not recognise them because they never received him as the heavenly bread which comes down from heaven to give life to the world. He does not know them because they stay with the external form of religion, which is to worship self and ego and never the worship of the God who sees and rewards what is done in secret. He does not know them, even when they have used his name and the charismatic gifts to prophesy, speak in tongues, cast out demons, and work many miracles because they did all these not to please or worship the heavenly Father but for self-glory. From these, we understand that true religion is the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. The purpose of Jesus’ coming into our human nature is that he may reveal the will of God for our salvation. Thus, the foundation of religion and spirituality is listening, meditating, contemplating, and doing the word of God every day. “Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock.” Based on this, we conclude that the spiritual man is a heavenly citizen and lives in heaven, even now, in this present life. For the petition: ‘Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,’ is answered daily in his consciousness.

The heavenly kingdom of God that gradually dawns in our souls has its physical manifestations. The house our Lord refers to in the gospel is both physical and spiritual, though more spiritual than physical. When the heart ceases to believe in the word of God, the spiritual structure founded on faith in God begins to recede and wane both in our spirits and consciousness and in its physical manifestations. The story of the kingdom of Judah illustrates this. The continual rejection of the word of God and his Commandments eroded the foundation of God’s presence in the physical Temple in Jerusalem and the people’s lives as a whole. Hence, the fall of the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem, the City of God, was caused by the peoples’ choices in their thoughts, words, and actions. The coming of Nebuchadnezzar was to execute the judgment already passed on the peoples’ lives and conducts. “At that time the troops of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched on Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. … Then Jehoiachin king of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his officers, his nobles and his eunuchs, the king of Babylon took them prisoner.” The people destroyed the spiritual foundation of Judah and Jerusalem by their disobedience to the will of God. A Christian is founded on the rock of confession of faith in Jesus Christ, the same way the faith of Christians constitutes the Church. We celebrate St. Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria, for resisting Nestorius’ attempt to propagate a heresy that denied the dual nature of Jesus Christ. His struggles helped the Church to articulate the revealed truth as our solid foundation.

Let us pray: O God, who made the Bishop St. Cyril of Alexandria an invincible champion of the divine motherhood of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, grant, we pray, that we, who believe she is truly the Mother of God, may be saved through the Incarnation of Christ your Son.