Word to the Wise
Thursday, June 27, 2013 - Thursday in the 12th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 16:1-12, 15-16 or 16:6b-12, 15-16 and Matt 7:21-29]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. [Matt]
I live in Houston, TX, which is near the Gulf of Mexico. Each year, beginning in May, signs appear along the freeways advising citizens to be prepared for hurricanes! The provincial office of the Southern Dominican Province, to which I and my Dominican brothers here at Holy Rosary Priory belong, sends out a notice requesting information as to where we will be in case of evacuation. [Houston is too large to evacuate entirely, so only the flood-prone areas move. Our priory is not in one of those areas.] Our building is designed to withstand at least a Force Two hurricane, but we still take the precautions and have the necessary supplies on hand and fill out our "evacuation" plan forms. Having lived in the Gulf South since birth, I am well aware of what a hurricane can do. That's why Jesus' words about a solid foundation to withstand storms strike home.
One of the sad realities of campus ministry was the lack of solid foundation in the faith of many students. They were "Catholic" because that's the church their parents took them to They may well have attended religious education classes (or even Catholic schools) but their faith was not deeply rooted. As soon as the freedom and secular options of college life began to blow against those weak foundations, the faith would collapse. The rebuilding would take a lot of time and discipline - both of which can be in short supply in a university life-style environment!
However, the students' situation pointed to a deeper problem of preparation for the storms of the environment. Where was the faith of the parents and the parish or the school? I know that many well-intentioned priests, teachers and religious education directors work very hard, but the results were clear. Parents and Grandparents alike complain to me at parish missions that their children and grandchildren alike are not practicing their faith! The "new evangelization" that has been a prominent movement recently in the church is going to have to work hard to build up the foundations of Jesus' word so that the "attractions and temptations" of our secular consumerist culture will not prevail. We have to do more than fill bags with sand when things get bad. We need to deal with the whole environment that we live our faith in! AMEN