Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Do not just say ‘Lord, Lord!
“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. Many 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?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ “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. And 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. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. Mt 7,21-29
This passage of the gospel, so firm and almost expeditious in its exhortation to be authentically christian, remembers to me the grandmother Barberina in her way to teach me, when, during the long lasting summer holidays, I was usually assigned to her in the last years of my adolescence. She had chosen to marry the grandfather Angelo when he was a widower, with a small child, and then they formed together a numerous family, but always ready to accommodate elderly abandoned persons. She worked incessantly: she looked after the family on the daily time and she sewed shirts until late at night. With me, however, she never mentioned her past efforts, because she was of a few words and she preferred to spend such words to transmit the teachings which she considered more valuable. This was a treasure which I had for me, because I was aware, even at that time, of how much her chistian faith was authentic and concretely lived. I still remember her voice and her eyes when, to prepare me for my future as a woman, urged me to accept the children I would have had as gifts of the Lord, in the certainty of the Providence which would have accompanied them: “Every child who arrives brings with him his basket!” it was her thoroughly convinced conclusion. When I was attending the final year of the high school, grandmother Barberina reached in the heaven the grandfather Angelo and few months later, I met Pierluigi. I have been always convinced that she was the one to fix the things from the heaven so that we met and we became engaged, preparing to live by the values which I have been taught by her.