Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today's (9/10) first reading, Saint Paul tells us: "avoid idolatry." Idolatry is putting something else, even someone else above the one, true God. That is the First Commandment that God gives us. If we do not follow the commandments faithfully, then we can certainly imagine Jesus asking us: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?"
Jesus tells us that his yoke (his laws, his commandments) are easy and his burden light. However, the yoke of sin and temptation and the chains of addiction that enslave us are far harder and more burdensome to bear. Therefore, let us build our lives on the solid rock foundation of the laws and commandments of God and live a life of virtue rather than on the shifting sands of sin that washes away by the torrent of this passing world.
May the Gospel Acclamation remind us to choose the yoke of Christ at all times because "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him."
. . .
Jesus said to his disciples:
“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,
listens to my words, and acts on them.
That one is like a man building a house,
who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;
when the flood came, the river burst against that house
but could not shake it because it had been well built.
But the one who listens and does not act
is like a person who built a house on the ground
without a foundation.
When the river burst against it,
it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”
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