Click here to read the daily readings from the USCCB website.

This Gospel always serves as a reality check for me... and I hope it does for you too.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven."

We're coming up on the conclusion of a really unique and, for many, really difficult year. I'm sure there were cries of desperation in many hearts this year. I'm certainly among them. "Lord, Lord, please free me from this oppression. Lord, Lord, please sustain me as I struggle with that cross. Lord, Lord, I need you."

This prayer is so good and so pure and so childlike. It is truly so good to rely on God with childlike dependence, recognizing that He is the only one that can save us from the fear and opression of suffering. But the perfect prayer is the one that concludes with Jesus's words, "yet not what I will but what  you will."

God is not a "heavenly gumball machine." I think that's what Jesus is trying to communicate to us. When we treat God as the powerful entity that we turn to when things aren't going our way, we build our house on sand, the sand of our unconstant will. Our desires and feelings can change on a whim, and so do not serve as a very sturdy foundation. But when our lives are built on the consistent surrender to God's will, then everything is different.

We can call out "Lord, Lord," and expect and answer. It may not be what we want. It may not be how we want it. But we don't need to fear our houses falling out beneath us because we trust that God's will for us is good.