First reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm: Ps 80:9,12-16,19-20
Epistle: Philippians 4:6-9
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43

Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.

St. Paul knew what he was talking about. He was intimately familiar with the history of the Jewish people. He knew what Jesus was talking about when Jesus described the wretched tenants. These were his people.

The history of the Jewish people was something that was now behind. The lessons from their journey were written into the pages of history, and could be looked upon through the lens of faith in Jesus Christ. The Messiah had come.

Paul could have hung on, going on about his people’s rejection of the prophets, their rejection of the Messiah, and the fact that the Messiah is now the cornerstone for a new group of tenants – the Gentiles to whom he was ministering. Paul didn’t do that. He knew. We can loose it too.

We possess throughout our lives. As children it is our toys, our house, our neighborhood and friends. We are connected to them. As we mature our view of those things changes. Our perspective changes. Some of those possessions are lost into history. They are replaced with new possessions, a new affinity for people, places, and things.

Paul is telling us, and Jesus is reminding us, that it cannot be like that with faith. Faith is not a passing possession. If it is serious faith it is a permanent part of us. We are changed. We have built a new life, in faith, upon a permanent cornerstone.

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes

In our life of faith we hear prophets and teachers. We are blessed because our Holy Polish National Catholic Church teaches that we receive grace, God’s strengthening gift of love, by listening to the scripture, and being taught its meaning from the pulpit. We must hear, cling to, possess, and live out our faith, true faith centered on Jesus Christ.

Do we distance ourselves from the faith? Do we forget where our lives should be centered? Certainly we do from time-to-time. We loose focus in our human weakness. That is why we must discipline ourselves. We must work to remind ourselves, here in Church, through prayer and the reading of scripture, that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our lives.

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus is our cornerstone. We must build our lives upon Him. We must hear Him and see Him through lens of faith. We must cling to Him and possess Him as a treasure that will not fade, that does not change.

St Peter writes (1 Peter 1:3-4):

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you

Both Peter and Paul speak to the fact that the mistakes of the past can be avoided if we keep our eye on Christ, if we are born to new life, and if we possess faith in Him, hear Him, and build our lives upon Him.

Building our lives on Him is not a one time event, a simple conversion. It is putting our converted hearts, our profession of faith, into action. When Paul says: —Keep on doing what you have learned and received— he really means that we must do. We must have an active living faith. A faith that is at the center of our lives in real and measurable ways.

Friends,

The doing can be reduced to pious platitudes. Be nice, be kind, speak kindly, be charitable, sacrifice for others, love. In today’s world people are looking for those things. The problem is is that they are looking in the wrong place. They want government to intervene. They want charity enforced in law. That want kindness under penalty of prison. They want sacrifice, but according to their terms and for their ends.

If Christ is the cornerstone of our lives we not only practice what we have leaned and received – from Jesus Christ, through His apostles and disciples, through our Holy Church and its ministers, but we do it for the right reason – because we live with Christ at the center of our lives. We do not need government and law, like the Jews needed the Law, nor do we need earthly power to impose good upon us. We do because we possess an imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, inheritance.

We can loose it too. We can be replaced by other tenants if we forget to build upon Christ. If we rely elsewhere, if other saviors are more important, if fleeting possessions take hold of us, if faith gets pushed into a corner and is not active and alive at the center of our lives.

Let us take time to reflect on active, living faith. Is Christ the cornerstone of our lives? He is if we act and we do. Let us set aside fifteen minutes a day for prayer, another fifteen for scripture reading. Let us put Jesus at the center of our families by praying before meals, making the sign of the cross before driving. Let us make sure that the children and grandchildren see us doing it — and join us in doing it. Let the neighbors and our co-workers see us. Let us live rightly and do good because Christ is our cornerstone.

By keeping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at the center of our lives, in real and discernible ways, we will possess that treasure which awaits us. Amen.