“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. The same storm, the same triple threat — and the house fell. The great was the fall communicates the totality of the collapse: not a partial failure or a recoverable setback but a complete destruction. The greater the investment in an insufficient foundation, the greater the fall when the foundation fails. The religious investment the many have made in works without relationship (verse 22) produces the most devastating collapse — great was the fall — because the investment was so large and the foundation so inadequate.
Church Fathers on Matthew 7:27
Because there would be some who would admire the things that were said by the Lord, but would not add that shewing forth of them which is in action, He threatens them before, saying, 'Every man that hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man.'
He said not, I will account him that hears and does, as wise; but, 'He shall be likened to a wise man.' He then that is likened is a man; but to whom is he likened? To Christ; but Christ is the wise man who had built His house, that is, the Church, upon a rock, that is, upon the strength of the faith.
Or the great ruin is to be understood that with which the Lord will say to them that hear and do not, 'Go ye into everlasting fire.' [Matt 25:41]
Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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