The Gospel for the memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and doctor of the Church, is taken from Matthew 7th, chapter 21st verse. In the 24th through the 27th verse, Jesus said to his disciples, 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. 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, the winds blew and buffeted the house, but it did not collapse. They had been set solidly on rock.

And everyone who listens to these words of mine, does not act on them, will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and buffeted the house and it collapsed. It was completely ruined. To listen to the words of Jesus is to listen to the words of the Father. What he longs for us to be is like his Son. And when one understands that and begins to do the things that Jesus did, to heal, to forgive, to support, to tend, to care, they become like a very strong force that cannot be buffeted or blown away by any wind, of a different way of seeing or any criticism.

They’re solid. That’s the key. To create around you a house that protects you from all the other influences that come our way. And we know that there is one way, the one way that Christ has taught us, the way of love. That’s our challenge, to be rooted and grounded, built on rock on that very simple core teaching of the gospel. God is love, forgiveness, care, hope, beauty, foreign.

The closing prayer Father, one of your miracles was to allow people to hear, to open their ears to listen, and they open their heart to let the message penetrate there and remain there. That’s our house of you. Living inside of us, with you and us in this safe place, we’re capable of doing all that we’re called to do, no matter what the criticism, no matter what the difficulty. Lots of other forces work against this. But when we’re solidly connected to you and you are in us, we are the house that cannot be destroyed. And we ask this in Jesus name, amen.