[Jesus said,] “I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a person building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.” 

“Falling asleep at the wheel, you’re drifting over the line. Your hands are tight but you’re losing grip quickly. Fix me, can you read the signs? Thumbing your way to Vegas, dirty, and dreaming of the other side. Save your tears and laughter because it doesn’t matter what you find. It ain’t pretty after the show. It ain’t pretty when the pretty leaves you with no place to go. If you think you need it, here’s the place to feed it, but it ain’t pretty.  When everything that you do is wrong, and you feel like you can barely survive, when those around you are crumbling downwards buried in the sunset alive. The party’s over and the road is long.” 

The group INXS’ song “Pretty Vegas” says that the pursuit of pleasure, symbolized by the city of Las Vegas, is not necessarily what we think. We want it, but it’s going to hurt us, even when we achieve it. They sing, “It ain’t pretty when the pretty leaves you.” We think that things are pretty—that is, some things are good for us—we like the feeling, we want the money, we want the pleasure, and so we go after it with everything that we have. We may even achieve our desires for a while. But reality takes over—all we are really doing is “dreaming of the other side.” We run into serious difficulties—the pretty has left, and we have no place to go, we begin to lose our grip, we begin to drift over the line, and we scream, as the group does: “Fix me, can you read the signs?” We cry to someone who can read the signs of what is happening—we want someone to take care of the situation, to take care of the difficulties.
 
In terms of the so-called Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke, the river is bursting against the house, and is destroying it. The solution is to strengthen the foundation, that is, as Jesus says, to listen to his words and act on them. Christians must be willing to accept the principles of Jesus into their lives as a guide—the principles that deal with a deep love of God and sincere love of others—and make them real, to honestly live them out in their own little worlds.
 
When “pretty” is no longer “pretty,” when we have finally realized that life is not the party we want, but that it involves serious thought about “why” and “how” we are to live, then we need a guide, and the guide for the Christian is the life and words of Jesus Christ.                     

THOUGHT
 
PRAYER

Good and gracious God, you have allowed us to enjoy ourselves legitimately as we go about our lives here on earth. But often we want to enjoy ourselves too much. As we decide how to regulate our lives, help us turn to your Son as a guide in everything that we do. Be with us, we pray.

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©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America