Sealed Into Place

In an old ìPeanutsî comic strip, Charlie Brown is pictured on the beach building a beautiful sand castle …

When the castle is completed a very self-satisfied Charlie stands back to admire his sand-made treasure. Then a single raindrop falls, and in the cartoonís final frame, the rain is coming down in torrents. Charlie, looking very pensive, says philosophically, ìThereís a lesson of some kind in this, someplace.î

When Jesus gives us the Sermon on the Mount as the superlative picture of what life is all about, He ends the lesson on a down-to-earth, realistic note. He reminds us that the crisis will come, the rain will fall, the treasures we have built up will collapse. Having presented a clear picture of what it is like to be blest, to be fulfilled, to be fully human, He ends on this note of crisis.

In our Gospel Lesson He speaks a parable about two men who built their houses, one on sandy ground, the other on…