Stone Upon Stone
Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 20, 2024
Acts 4:8-12; 1 Jn 3:1-2; Jn 10:11-18
Shrine of the Little Flower
(Photo: Corinth, Greece. Evan Ponton)
Cardinal Lawrence Shehan, then auxiliary bishop of Baltimore, preached at the dedication of this present church on January 20, 1952. He shared these words:
“In the first place, then, this church belong to you,” nay, it has already become a part of your lives. For twenty-five years you have dreamed of it; you have planned for it; you have worked and sacrificed for it. With loving care you have watched it rise stone upon stone. And now it stands before you in all its glory, you can say truly: “This is our Church.” Entering through the great oak doors you will be met by that sacred hush which is found only in the Church of Christ’s presence.”[1]
Two-thousand years earlier,
“Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed. He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."
Jesus is the foundation stone of the new Temple in his body, which the people rejected, crucified, but God vindicated in power in his Resurrection.[2] Jesus is the cornerstone of “God’s building,” the Church, the living temple of the Holy Spirit. In the New Covenant, the cornerstone is no longer a stone but a person, Jesus Christ, and an apostolic authority handed over to the rock, Peter.[3]
God’s act of laying the cornerstone is none other than Jesus, the Good Shepherd, laying down his life in love for you and me and the whole world.
“This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father" (Jn 10:16-18).
The Church is built on love, the God of love and the love of God. Love is our only lasting foundation. Anything not built on love will pass away. Love builds God’s building, the Church, stone upon living stone.
Twenty-five years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, St. Paul instructed the Church of Corinth:
“We are God’s co-workers; you are God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But each one must be careful how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy” (1 Cor 3:9-17).
Maybe you are feeling rejected, destroyed, or someone taking my life from me. It is hard not to. Why us? Why my church? “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” You are not rejected. The one who was rejected has chosen you. You are chosen, saved, and loved in the only way that matters in the end. Nobody can take that from you.
“Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:1-2).
We are God’s children now, and what we shall be has not yet been revealed. Do not be content to dream somebody else’s dream. It is time to dream again. If there will be a new church twenty-five years from now, a church not for 1952 but 2052, then we must dream it, plan it, work for it, and sacrifice for it. The only stone that truly remains is the cornerstone, Christ the Lord. “This is our Church. . . the Church of Christ’s presence.”
Allow me to conclude with a quote from the ritual prayer for the “Blessing and Laying of the Foundation Stone”:
“God of love, we praise your holy name,
for you have made us your temple by baptism
and inspire us to build on earth
churches dedicated to your worship.
Look favorably upon your children,
for they have come with joy
to begin work on this new church.
Enable them to grow into the temple of your glory,
until, shaped anew by your grace,
they are gathered by your hand
into your heavenly city.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.”[4]
[1] Taken from the dedication sermon by The Most Reverend Lawrence J. Shehan, D.D. The Dedication Solemn Pontifical Mass In Honor of St. Theresa of The Infant Jesus Sunday, January 20th, 1952 ten-thirty o’clock. The Shrine of The Little Flower was established in 1926 as a parish church ( not a mission ) the first mass was celebrated in the first church building by Rev. Francis L. Kenzel C.SS.R. of Annapolis at 6:30 am, Sunday October 24, 1926. Three additional masses followed at 8, 9:30 and 11:30 am. The total attendance this day was 1,075.
[2] Cf. Matt 21:42; Mk 12:10; Lk 20:17; Acts 4:11; 1 Pt 2:7
[3] Pope Francis, Angelus Message, August 24, 2014. <https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2014/documents/papa-francesco_angelus_20140824.pdf>
[4] “Blessing and Laying of the Foundation Stone,” in Dedication of a Church and an Altar (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1989), 14.