The True Disciple

Today's Reflections

                               

 

     

The True Disciple 

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Mt 7:21-29

[Jesus said to his disciples,] ²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²²Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ ²³Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’

²⁴“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵The 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. ²⁶And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

²⁸When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, ²⁹for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Reflection:

The one who does the will of my Father. Jesus makes it clear to us that what matters to him is obedience to the Father’s will. This is what allows us to enter the kingdom of heaven. Prophesying and even working miracles do not count for being a follower of Christ unless it is accompanied by obedience to the will of his Father.

Already in the Old Testament, Samuel told Saul, “Obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Sm 15:22). And Paul will describe Jesus’ total self-emptying as obedience unto death: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8).

It is more important to do the will of the Father than to prophesy or work miracles in Christ’s name.

Let us be true followers of Christ

by doing his Father’s will as he did.