Homily
[Isaiah 50:5-9a; Psalm 116; James 2:14-18; Mark 8 :27-35]
I see that a beautiful mass booklet has been prepared for our celebration today. Together with the elements of the mass itself, it contains congratulatory letters, historical summaries, and many photographs.
A few pictures in particular caught my attention. One has Fr. Glenn and three other parishioners lifting out the cornerstone of the church. Subsequent photos show the cornerstone being opened in order to discover, and later display, items placed within the stone at the time of its blessing by Archbishop John Hugh MacDonald in 1952. I invite us all to hold these images in our mind as we ponder the message of the scriptural texts for this anniversary mass. In a different and deeper sense, they do what those photos show us Fr. Glenn and some parishioners doing: they lift out to our view the cornerstone of the Church and allow us to look inside at the treasures hidden within.
What is the role of a cornerstone? Well, typically, once a cornerstone is set, it becomes the basis for determining every measurement in the remaining construction; everything is aligned to it. Scripture reverberates with the proclamation that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone set by God the Father in the fashioning of the Church. This means that, as his disciples, we must align the entirety of our lives with Jesus and his teachings. Doing so, we are assured that we are part of a well-balanced structure, rising upon a very secure foundation.
Before we ask the scriptural texts to open this cornerstone for us, we can already begin to sense, in the very concept itself – cornerstone – the importance and urgency of this historical moment in the life of the parish. While our jubilee celebration is an opportunity to consider with gratitude the pioneers who established this parish 100 years ago, it is also an occasion for you, the parishioners of today, to embrace the call to be new pioneers, sent to announce Jesus Christ in circumstances radically different from when the parish began. Ours is an era marked by the absence of clear cornerstones, reliable reference points. Many people of our day suffer deeply from the great anxiety that flows from the lack of solid foundations in their lives and the widespread instability they experience in many contexts. What is needed now is a new, joyful, and convincing proclamation that there is a sure cornerstone that reliably grounds a life of real hope, the cornerstone that is Jesus Christ. It falls to you, and is the responsibility of us all in the Church, to make this announcement.
Now, when the readings from Scripture begin to open the cornerstone, we see right away a particular challenge that faces us who are called to announce Jesus Christ in our time. As the cornerstone to this building was opened up, what came into view were a variety of artifacts from the past, all of great historical interest. When Jesus opens up the question of his identity – “Who do people say that I am”? – notice that the responses generally associate him with a person from the past: John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets; in other words, Jesus is someone of no particular significance in himself. How many are the people in our day who could not give any answer to the question because they haven’t even heard of Jesus! Or, if they have, think of him as nothing more than a figure of the past, an interesting historical artifact, of no real significance to their lives right now! With Peter, we are called to profess the astounding truth that Jesus is the Christ! This means he is the ever-living, ever-present Son of God made flesh, who saved the world by his death and resurrection and continues to enter always into the lives of his people, in their daily here-and-now, to be their cornerstone, their hope, their peace, their very life. Our urgent task is to share with everyone the life, joy, and security we have found in Jesus Christ.
How we do that becomes clear as Scripture gives us another look inside the cornerstone that is Jesus. Here the time capsule takes us back not seventy or one hundred but thousands of years, to Isaiah’s ancient prophecy of the Suffering Servant, the one whose willing submission to rejection and sacrifice would usher into the world God’s healing and salvation. Jesus announces he is the fulfillment of that prophecy, that he himself is the Suffering Servant, when he says: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected…” Then, just after he makes known his identity, the cornerstone also lifts the lid on our own: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” We announce Jesus Christ by the conformity of our lives to his. Just as he gave himself in sacrifice for us, we, too, must make of our lives a sacrificial self-gift for others. Like Peter, we may become rather confused and upset as we discover this. We may be tempted here, as he was, to impose and follow our own, more comfortable, way of seeing things. But, as Jesus said in stern rebuke to Peter, that is to think not as God does but as Satan would have us do. The way of the Christian, the way of effective witness to the truth of God’s love and mercy active in Jesus Christ, is the way of the Cross.
Here we touch what inspired the life and witness of the countless parishioners who went before us at St. Alphonsus parish. By the help of God’s grace, they did conform their lives to Christ, and made of themselves a gift to the Lord and his people. To borrow from Saint James, we can say with confidence that they expressed their faith in Christ through the good deeds they did for others in his name. Our task now is to receive in gratitude and to carry forward in humility the legacy they have bequeathed to us.
In our Eucharist on this centenary, we give thanks to Almighty God for the gift of the many women, men, and children who have called St. Alphonsus parish their spiritual home over these many years. Let us also pray that God grant to us, the pioneers of a new future, the grace to proclaim Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of not only the whole Church but also the entire world, and invite everyone to look within and find in Jesus the hidden treasures of truth, life, hope, and salvation.
Most Reverend Richard W. Smith
St. Alphonsus Parish
September 15th, 2024