THE HOUSE THE WISE MAN BUILT

Having lived in Florida for 15 years, I am reminded that June 1 st is the beginning of the Hurricane Season.

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit Miami and did a great deal of damage. Fortunately, the cost was not in lives. But, thousands of people lost their homes or had them severely damaged. Being 100 miles away, I experienced only high winds and no damage to our building.

I went to sleep that Sunday night, confident that I was very safe. The Retreat Center was built of poured concrete. It had a solid foundation and while it was technically in an evacuation zone, we never left the building because we always thought that we would be safer there than anywhere else.

In 2004, I finally went thru my first and second hurricane within one month. Ironically, the name of the first was Frances (the feminine version of the name). The second one was Jeanne. The eye of both storms went right over our building. But, I felt very safe, safe enough to sleep through both storms. When I awakened in the morning, I discovered that water had entered the building through some doors and windows. We loss electrical power and water. Many trees on the property were destroyed. But, all of us who remained in the building were quite safe. The worst of it was that we had to mop up water in the chapel and corridors and after many hours of work, without water to wash, we remained grimy for a couple of days.

There were buildings near us that sustained great damage. One condominium was so damaged that two years later, when I left Florida, it was still not repaired. As I look back, I can appreciate the work of one of our Passionist priests, Fr. Christopher Berlo, who was responsible for overseeing the construction of the Center in the early 60’s. His watchful eye insured that the all the specs for the building were followed and he inspected every delivery of cement to make sure that it was proper. When a building is well built, it is safe and secure.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could say the same thing about out lives? In Matthews Gospel today, Jesus tells us about the importance of building our lives on what he has taught us and to act upon them. If we do that, we will be like a wise man who built his house on rock and when the rain fell and floods came and winds blew, the house remained.

As we all know, no life is without its storms. We are buffeted by floods of doubt, by the down pouring of hurt, intentional or unintentional, from others and by the winds of desires which can blow us off course in our journey to holiness and happiness in God.

But, if we build our lives on the Word of God, if we follow the path of Jesus, if we realize our own weakness and rely on the strength of God to help us, then we are in the process of building a life that will be secure in the trust we have in God and the love we share with God. For, Lord, you have the words of eternal life.