1st Week of Advent, Thursday – 1st December 2022 — Gospel: Mt 7,21.24-27
Foundations are not Glamorous
All foundations seem firm in a normal situation. Good weather doesn’t test the strength of a building. The real test comes when the climate turns nasty. In many of the natural calamities, we have experienced this. In Spiritual life too, similar thing occurs. When serenity reigns around us, peace blossoms effortlessly. But when a crisis happens to us, such as a rejection, an illness, or an unbearable loss, then our faith is tested. We experience the sturdiness or oscillations in our faith. Jesus exhorts his disciples to build foundations of faith on the rock. To dig solid foundations of faith is a hard work. It demands constancy in prayer, charity and generosity. It also requires humility and purity of intention since preparing a foundation is not glamorous. There’s nothing particularly beautiful in the groundwork that is always hidden. In the same way, the foundation of our spiritual life remains hidden. Digging a foundation demands us to go deeper to remove our worst faults. Faith in Jesus demands us to penetrate our hearts and minds. Peter, who boasted that he would stand by our Lord, “though all may have their faith in you shaken” (Mt 26,33), abandoned Him in the garden of Gethsemane, as did all the apostles. However, when he did a soul search, he overcame his oscillations and put his foot firm till the end, come what may.
