Isaiah 26:1-6 / Matthew 7:21, 24-27
One phrase that we use very often is to say that we "have to go for a meeting."
And quite often, we say it with resignation and even frustration.
That may be because our experience of many meetings is that those meetings are mere occasions of people wanting to have a say and with time-consuming deliberations on problems but not much of directions on solutions and actions.
In life, we establish ourselves through concrete actions; our actions say who we are.
So words don't count for much if they are not followed by actions.
Similarly as we hear the prophet Isaiah say in the 1st reading - "Trust in the Lord our everlasting Rock" - that trust must be actualized in the concrete actions of our lives and not remain as concepts and ideas or even wishes.
So we trust in the Lord when we choose to tell the truth, because the truth will set us free.
We trust in the Lord when we choose to do good instead of returning evil for evil, because we believe that good will overcome evil.
We trust in the Lord when we forgive others because in forgiving, we too are healed.
But to trust in the Lord means that we build our lives on the Lord our Rock.
It is much easier to build our lives on the sands of pleasure and comfort.
But when the winds and the rains come, there will be no time to call for a meeting with the Lord.
We prepare for that meeting with the time we have now.