Overview:

Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

“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.”

Find today’s readings here. 

Today’s Gospel is just a metaphor, right? Hard times are coming, so we’d best get ready. Message received.

But in an unusual case of life imitating Scripture, my family found itself in a similar scenario this winter. The floods came—a burst sprinkler pipe—and we had to vacate our apartment. Five weeks in a hotel without a kitchen: We call it the long Lent of 2026. 

So was our house built on stone, or on sand?

You learn a lot about yourself when you are without a home. More importantly, you learn something about other people. 

For one thing, a lot of people live in hotels. Maybe their house is under construction, or they are getting divorced. We saw young families and senior citizens. I never knew why they were there. But I knew they were living in between.

It makes you see the world differently. Monday night at Whole Foods, picking up dinner, I stand behind a young mother with her son, spooning out the last of the minestrone. Do they have a home to go to?

We survived the storm. There were some tears, but mostly laughs. I prayed by the ice machine.

So we passed the test, right? Our house is built firmly, faithfully, on rock. It’s an encouraging thought, but it’s not the lesson I’m left with.  

We are not living in a house, but a boat; sometimes the seas are calm, sometimes they’re not. Should we batten down the hatches, or look for others stranded at sea? 

There are few things more traumatic than losing your home. But what happens when you lose your home tells you a lot about who you are.

Tim Reidy joined America’s staff in October 2006 and served as online editor for several years before moving into his current role as the deputy editor in chief. Tim oversees America’s newsroom, directing its daily news coverage as well as working with the editorial leadership team to plan each print issue. Tim also edits the magazine’s Ideas section, where he contributes book reviews and essays. Before joining America, he worked at the Hartford Courant, a newspaper in Connecticut, and Commonweal magazine. In addition to writing for America, he has contributed to The New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review and the Princeton Alumni Weekly. He has been interviewed about the Catholic Church on WNYC in New York, ABC, Bloomberg TV and other media outlets. Tim also serves on the board of directors of Jesuit Refugee Service USA. He lives in Bronxville, N.Y., with his wife and two children.