Day 22. On the Cornerstone
…a man building a house…dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock.
Luke 7:48
Many Christians will say that Jesus belongs at the center of our lives. It’s a good place, but it’s not the place Jesus himself said he should be. Our Lord locates himself below, describing himself as the “stone which the builders rejected, the cornerstone” (Luke 20:17, NAB). A cornerstone is a foundation stone. It is a very solid, very large, heavy rock with no cracks or imperfections. It is carefully chosen by a builder and skillfully placed in his construction of a building because it will have to bear all the weight of the massive structure. It will have to remain steady in spite of storms, floods and earthquakes. Lives are depending on the builder’s choice. Therefore, he takes great care to choose his cornerstone wisely.
As we approach the end of the second week of our novena, we arrive at the turning point in our self-exploration, and you’ve probably already anticipated where this is heading. What is the only foundation that is stable enough, strong enough, lasting enough to ground the enormous weight of our lives? What is the Rock that can bear our Sense of Self, be our Source of Love and bring about our Hope of Happiness? It is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Cornerstone.
Seems rather cliché, doesn’t it? I mean honestly. It sounds like what one man I know calls a “Sunday school answer.” Pretty to the ears, but lacking in real power and unreliable when the chips are down. Since you are in the process of discernment, I would expect that you have already chosen Jesus Christ to be Lord in your life, but what does this mean to you? It’s one thing to pray to Him and say, “Jesus, you’re my Lord,” but what about when your life – when the surface of your table – is pitching and shaking like a ship in a storm? When your life is in chaos, do you place your confidence in a “Sunday school answer”? Do you really place your trust in Jesus?
Sometimes we simply have no choice. Once we’ve done everything in our power to bring our unruly lives under control, we’re willing to cry out to God, but really it’s just our last gasp. “I trust you Lord (...because everything else I trusted before you has failed me)!” It doesn’t say much for our confidence in God’s power when prayer is our last resort rather than our first impulse. Still, if this is where we’re at, God is willing to meet us here. Once our life comes back under control, we may quickly resume business as usual. God is placed in a prominent place in our Level of Awareness, maybe even at the center, but do we ground our pillars on Him?
Let’s return in our mind’s eye to the tabletop. What do these “Sunday school answers” look like at your Level of Awareness – on the tabletop? They look like shiny pieces of glass: very pretty, but apparently fragile. I like them enough to adorn my table with them. They make it look better and give me a sense of security. But rest the weight of my life on them? Please. They’re just too fine and fragile. Better for decoration, I think. So it is with a Christian who has all the trappings of religion – who says all the right things and speaks of God reverently and prays piously – but doesn’t really rely on God nor trust Him with the ultimate prize: his or her own life.
What you can’t see from your tabletop is that down below, far under the sand, clay and stones in the Ground of Reality, there are three cornerstones made of the same clear, glasslike substance. When you were baptized, these massive stones were placed in perfect alignment under your Sense of Self, your Source of Love and your Hope of Happiness. Though imperceptible to you, they have already provided stability to your life while remaining below the surface and invisible.
In the next few days we’re going to examine each of these cornerstones, but for now it is sufficient to say that the clear substance they are made of is not glass. It is diamond. There is no foundation more firm, steady and secure. Diamond is formed underground over millennia of intense, searing pressure – in a crucible of testing beyond anything we have ever endured. Jesus Christ, who died, was buried and descended into hell only to rise from the dead, became for us the Cornerstone when He underwent the searing agony of Calvary. Jesus Christ is the diamond that can support our life no matter what intense trials we will ever face. You can embrace this as fact or you can dismiss it as a “Sunday school answer.” But please let us resolve not to continue decorating our tabletops with pieces of glass – the pretty appearances of faith – without working to place our pillars squarely on top of them. To do this is simply hypocrisy. Let’s make every effort to choose our foundations well.
Everyone who listens to these words of mine and
acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on
rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew
and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been
set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but
does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on
sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew
and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.
Matthew 7:24-27
Novena Prayer
Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Pier Giorgio responds: Our life, in order to be Christian, has to be a continual renunciation, a continual sacrifice. But this is not difficult, if one thinks what these few years passed in suffering are, compared with eternal happiness where joy will have no measure or end, and where we shall have unimaginable peace.
Let us pray: Blessed Pier Giorgio, teach me that I must be able to mourn if I will be able to rejoice. Show me how to face my sorrow, and not avoid it or pretend that it does not exist. Help me to enter into any present sorrow, so that my soul can empty itself and be filled with God’s peace.
Blessed Pier Giorgio, I ask for your intercession in obtaining from God, Who is our Consoler, all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare. I confidently turn to you for help in my present need: (in your own words, ask the Father to enable you to see yourself in his eyes, with his loving gaze).
A Book of Prayers in Honor of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, by Rev. Timothy E. Deeter
Make it My Own
Daily Discernment Workbook
BREAK OPEN YOUR BIBLE
1. Solid Ground
God is my rock. What does this mean? Match the descriptions with their proper passages below.
a. Psalm 62:7-9
b. Deuteronomy 32:3, 4
c. Psalm 144:1
d. Psalm 118:22, 23
e. Psalm 95:1, 2
1. A wonderful foundation for God to build on.
2. My salvation to whom I sing.
3. A firm and secure place to stand
4. A trainer in warfare.
5. Perfect, faithful and just
2. On a Sure Foundation
Look up 1 Peter 2:4-7. Who is the cornerstone?
What must we have in order to receive the security of the cornerstone?
BRAIN STORM
3. From “Sunday School Answer” to Bedrock
Have I ever entrusted something important to Jesus – a prayer for help or healing, a time when I was in great need, an unsolvable problem? How did it change my perspective on trusting God? Write down any examples I can remember of times when God came through for me. If there’s not enough room here, I’ll use my journal.
MY FAITH BUILDERS
4. All about Baptism
Read below what the Catechism says about baptism. List eight changes this sacrament brings about in the life of a Christian.
Holy baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit…, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: “Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.” CCC 1213
Putting it in my own words: What does it mean to say that baptism is the “the basis of the whole Christian life?”
Conclude with
“Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be.
World without end, Amen.”
Answer key for Question 1: a3; b5; c4; d1; e2
All Scripture quotes from the New American Bible, unless otherwise specified