Homily, 7-3-23; Homily for the Feast of St. Thomas:
As a dad and a grandpa, I have spent many hours on the floor building castles and towers out of wooden blocks. The goal is often to try to build a tower as tall as possible. And so we always start with the largest blocks—ours were the yellow ones—so that we had a solid foundation. Otherwise, the tower would sway and fall down before it got very high.
We hear this morning from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that the Church is “built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.” I don’t want to get hung up with semantics, but the description of Jesus as the capstone didn’t seem to make sense. According to one definition online, a capstone is: “a stone at the top of a wall or building.” Referring to Jesus as the capstone might make sense when He comes again, but it doesn’t make sense to me in the context of today’s passage. I looked in the footnotes of our New American Bible and they indicate that other possible translations are cornerstone or keystone, but cornerstone, capstone, and keystone are three different things. So I once again turned to the Latin text. It uses the term angulari lapide, which Google translates as cornerstone. This makes more sense and correlates with a passage from Isaiah where we hear: “Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am laying a stone in Zion, – a stone that has been tested, A precious cornerstone as a sure foundation; whoever puts faith in it will not waver. (Isaiah 28:16).
A cornerstone is the first stone set in a building. It establishes the direction for the rest of the construction. It establishes a sure foundation. Jesus is that cornerstone. The apostles and prophets are the sure foundation He established and to which He gave direction. God promises that if we put our faith in this sure foundation that it will not waiver.
It is important for us to build our lives on a strong foundation, to build it according to the direction set by Jesus, the true cornerstone. We need to put our faith and trust in Him and not in the things of the world lest we sway and waiver as we grow and ultimately collapse. And we are called to continually grow in our faith, not to stagnate and accept where we are even though that may be comfortable and stable. And, like the tower of blocks, as we grow, that solid foundation that Jesus and the Church provide becomes ever more essential. We look to the teachings of Jesus and His Church to give us solid direction on how to build our lives. We pray also to Mary who is in Heaven with her Son. Before my conversion, my life was becoming pretty shaky. But Mary came into my life and led me back to a better relationship with Jesus. She can give us a better “blue” print to follow.