The Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 10, 2020

1 Peter 2:4–9

Beloved: Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in Scripture:

Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame. Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, a stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall. They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny. You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Since this reading came up during the week, I think this is a good chance to reflect on the second reading for today’s Mass, from the First Letter of St. Peter.  

The reading begins with Peter likening the Lord Jesus to “a living stone” that was “rejected” by men but has become the “cornerstone”.  He is looking back to a passage in the Psalms in which it is written, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Psalm 118, 22).  Significantly, Jesus quoted this passage with reference to himself, as we read in Matthew 21, 42.  This “living” stone differs from other stones in that these are not living.  There is only one “living stone”.  The ordinary stones are mortal humans, while the living stone is the Son of God who has taken on a human nature.  This living stone resembles the other stones even while it alone is living, that is, in union with God.  Only this living stone could be a cornerstone, that is, could put the other stones into an order, into unity with each other through their unity with it.  And this is Jesus, who makes us alive in him through grace and unifies us with each other through unity with him.  The “building” into which we are built with him as the cornerstone, is the Church.  Now, we are not mere adherents of the Lord’s teaching but are members of him through the supernatural unity we entered when we were baptized.  As members of the Lord, we share in his office as Priest: we share in his Priesthood in order that each of us might offer up our prayers and works to the Father as spiritual sacrifices.  Though this is not the ministerial priesthood through which alone the Holy Mass is offered, yet this sharing in his Priesthood is to be greatly treasured.  It is a gift the Lord bestows upon us at our baptism and it is one of the things that makes a Christian very different from any other person.  Through it we resemble him, the High Priest.

It is intriguing that Peter chose to use this verse of the Psalm.  After all, he is the one whom Christ chose as the “rock” upon which he would build his Church.  This prompts us to wonder if Peter uses this image to subtly speak of his own position in the Church.  He is also something of a “rejected” stone whom no one would think could lead the Church.  He was, after all, a fisherman from an obscure town, untrained in the Scriptures, possibly illiterate.  And yet, Christ chose him first as an Apostle, then as the chief of the Apostles and the leader of his Church on earth.  

We are likewise “rejected” stones, that is, unspectacular, unglamorous, not the obvious choices, but we have been chosen by God to be fitted to the Living Stone, his Son — to be members of the Body of Christ — and we can rejoice with the Psalmist, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118, 23).