9th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Deut 11:18, 26-28, 32; Rom 3:21-25, 28; Mt 7:21-27

A man sobering up from the night before is sitting through the Sunday sermon, finding it long and boring. Still feeling hung over and tired, he finally nods off.

The priest has been watching him all along, noticing his apparent hangover and is disgusted. At the end of the sermon, the preacher decides to make an example of him. He says to his congregation, “All those wishing to have a place in heaven, please stand.”

The whole room stands up except, of course, the sleeping man.

Then the preacher says even more loudly, “And he who would like to find a place in hell, please STAND UP!”

The weary man catching only the last part groggily stands up, only to find that he’s the only one standing. Confused and embarrassed he says, “I don't know what we're voting on here, Father, but it sure seems like you and me are the only ones standing for it.”

(The story is from an unknown author)

Jewish people of olden days had this popular tradition of the Two Ways, namely: the way of wisdom, which is characterized by obedience to God’s laws, and the way of foolishness, which is associated with disobedience. Accordingly, wise people are those who follow God’s decrees and statutes; foolish ones are those who listen to the counsel of the wicked.

Moses was a strong proponent of such tradition. In the first reading, he confronted his people with a choice: to obey God’s commandments or not (Deut 11:26-28). And he made clear the consequences of human choice: blessing or curse. In another passage, Moses revealed that the choice is ultimately between life and death (Deut 30:15-18).

In the gospel, Jesus illustrates the notion of the Two Ways by using the parable of the two builders. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. . . And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” For Jesus, the wise person is one who sincerely desires to understand his teachings and put them into practice. The consequence of this intelligent choice is endurance in face of storms or difficulties in life. On the other hand, the foolish person is one who knows the right ways but chooses not to follow them. Such fundamental option leads only to destruction.

So, genuine discipleship boils down to this: The living out of Jesus’ words. The crucial thing is in the doing. “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.”

A legend says that once upon a time, a Japanese peasant came to heaven, and the first thing he saw was a long shelf with something very strange looking upon it.

“What is that?” he asked. “Is it something to make soup of?”

“No,” was the reply. “Those are ears. They belonged to persons, who, when they lived on earth heard what they ought to do in order to be good, but they didn’t pay any attention to it. So when they died their ears came to heaven, but the rest of their bodies did not.”

After a while the peasant saw another shelf with very queer things on it. “What is it?” he asked. “Is it something to make soup of?”

“No,” he was told. “These are tongues. They once belong to people in the world who told people to do good and how to live good, but they themselves never did as they told others to do. So, when they died, their tongues came to heaven, but the rest of their bodies could not enter.”

(The story is told by Drinkwater)