The Gospel of Matthew 7:21

There are many ‘Christians’ who are only Christian in name, but not in practice. These kind of Christians are often referred to as cultural Christians. They identify themselves as Christians; they attend church on cultural occasions like Christmas and Easter; but for the rest of their days they go their merry way without a thought to following Christ, without a thought to listening to his word and practicing it.

The true Christian, Jesus tells us, is like the wise person who built a 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.”

Jesus’ words are the solid rock and foundation of our faith; everyone who listens to these words and acts on them is the true Christian. On the other hand, the person who listens to the words of the gospel but does not act on them is like “a fool who built his house on sand.” As the Lord, says, such a person is like a withered branch on a tree which would be better off to be cut off and thrown into the fire. If our faith amounts to nothing more than giving lip-service, we are no better, spiritually, than a withered branch on a tree.

The Lord came on earth to do the will of His Father in heaven; he came on earth to show us how to live. The true Christian is the one who can find Christ in himself, not the one who finds himself in Christ like the false prophet who uses the name of Christ to promote his or her own self-interest.
To find Christ in yourself is to listen to his word and act upon it. This is what St. Paul means when he says:”I live now not I, but Christ lives in me.” In other words, to find Christ in yourself is to deny yourself, to let the love and example of Christ take root in you so that His words and His example become your words and your actions.
To find yourself in Christ, on the other hand, is to be a Christian in name only; to reduce Christ to a selfish version of yourself because you are not listening to his word and practicing it. To act this way, would only promote your own self-interest by using Christ rather than to serve or follow Him.

Christ wants everyone who claims to be a Christian to let Him into their lives; to follow Him by listening to His word and putting it into practice.

The consequence of doing this leads to authentic union with the Lord which even the pressures of this world cannot destroy.

Fr. Hugh Duffy