Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A

What does a cornerstone do? What purpose does it serve?

When we hear the word ‘cornerstone,’ it likely creates in our minds some image or idea, some understanding. In everyday speech, this word is most often used to describe a foundational idea or conviction, “a cornerstone of a program, etc.” and though this is an apt usage, it misses something.

The cornerstone is an essential part of a foundation, but how?

Traditionally, the cornerstone was the first stone laid for a structure. It was to be placed first, and meticulously oriented and measured on every axis, because all other stones are laid in reference to it. The accuracy and steadfastness of the cornerstone determined how true the rest of the building would be, and as anyone who knows about building will tell you, a deviation of even a fraction of a millimeter can throw an entire wall off by the end. This is why, when St. Peter recounts the words from the Old Testament in his letter, our second reading today, more than simply naming Christ as ‘the foundation,’ though this is true, Jesus is called the cornerstone. This speaks not only of His strength and security, but of His exemplary guidance.

If Christ is the cornerstone, then we are not merely built upon Him, but also directed by Him.

It is not, then, enough to merely go through the motions and check the boxes of Faith, we must also live like Him!

Another possible function of a cornerstone, besides being the beginning and guide, is as a marker. Often, it is emblazoned with a year, sometimes the year the stone itself was placed, sometimes the year in which the building was completed. Either way, it serves to mark the project in time, a testament to the successful fulfillment of the journey. Just like Jesus, the cornerstone is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, as we hear Him described often in the liturgy.

Jesus, like the cornerstone, stabilizes, guides, orders, and fulfills. When St. Thomas, in the Gospel today, asks Our Lord to show us the way, Jesus answers in the words, so to speak, of the cornerstone: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. No one comes to completion, to fulfillment, to stability, except through me.

But who, or what, can we earnestly claim is our cornerstone?

Is it Jesus…or has His spot been claimed by another?

Is it money or success? Is it public recognition, accolade, esteem? Is it pity for our afflictions? Is it a political figure or party? A particular news outlet or commentator? Are we guided solely by the opinions and dispositions of society, of some particular cultural or social movement?

If anything has shifted Jesus from the corner of our spiritual houses, of our self, it is essential that we put Him back! It is never too late! The journey of life is the laying of living stones, and they are always able to be readjusted until we come to the end of that journey. Jesus, unlike all other cornerstones, has the power to shift the wall into alignment, to make crooked ways straight, to write straight with crooked lines, to make all things new. Even if He was not the stone by which our lives were ordered at the beginning, or if we have over time, and through much messiness, shifted Him out of place and put something else there, He can make all correct again, if we invite Him. If we approach Him, and if we allow Him.

We are, as St. Peter tells us today, chosen and holy, called to announce the praises of the one who enlightened our darkness, and realigned our foundations. If we are built upon, oriented, directed, and guided by this Cornerstone, then we cannot fail, and our hearts will not be troubled. Throughout our lives, it is likely that we will lay a few stones out of alignment, but the cornerstone will bring them back.

The key is that we offer Him the opportunity to do it!

Jesus does not force Himself on us. Just like a builder of a physical building, we must spend time with the cornerstone! We cannot expect to be able to orient ourselves according to something we do not actually contact, or in this case, be guided by someone we have not met! We must consult with Him, both the Architect and the Cornerstone, and the way that we do that is by reception of the Sacraments. In the Confessional, He gets rid of the bad materials, the sin which gets in our way, and in the Eucharist, we receive the tools and good materials to build it correctly.

Let us not, like the builders, reject this stone. Let us rather reject all others, orienting our lives by the guidance of Jesus, the cornerstone who shows us the way to fulfillment which is already written on our hearts, who makes our walls and our judgment true, and who orders our lives toward the end of happiness.

Preached on Sunday, May 7th, 2023 at St. Alexander’s, Morrisonville and St. James’, Cadyville

Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A