Thursday of the First Week of Advent
To be really converted
“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, 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.”Mt 7,21.24-27
By the parable of the sower Jesus exhorts us to welcome his word by the same way a good ground receives the seed, to give raise to a lot of fruits and to be able to withstand to the sufferings and to the persecutions. Nowadays the gospel describes two different modes to welcome his word, as two houses, the first built-up on the sand and the second erected on the rock. When it rains, when the rivers overflow and the winds blow, the first collapses and the second stands-up. By two different images these two passages of the gospel refer to a true conversion, merged in the reality of all our days, in the family and in the social relationships as well as in the professional activity. This is not an emotional conversion, as for the person who says “Lord, Lord“ and nothing more, but a conversion reach of choices for the life, of genuine commitments. I want to narrate you two facts. On 1980, when we attended the praying meetings of the Charismatic Renewal, which were organized by Sister Francesca at the premises of the Lentate Refectory, also Brother Ettore, camillian missionary, started to attend. He was there three or four times, subsequently he disappeared, such that the all of us thought that he was tired-up or that the spirituality of the Charismatic Renewal, all addressed to the praise, was not for him. It was not that way. He came, he was impressed by what he heard, the Lord had renewed his call and he consequently started, launching a wonderful action of evangelization and of support for all the homeless people of Milan. On 1986, Don Pigi Perini, parish priest of the parish church of st. Eustorgio, in Milan, equally attended for a certain period of time the Charismatic Renewal, afterwards the Lord called him to renew his parish church and, as the consequence, he started. Within few years he has launched, first in his parish reality, subsequently in Italy and in Europe, a marvellous work of evangelization by the cells of prayer. These are concrete choices, not only prayers.