18 May 2014 - something greater

18 May 2014 - something greater

At one time or another we all feel that we are meant to be a part of something greater than ourselves.  There are many ways we try to fill this longing for purpose.  But no matter what we build here we find that it does not last.  We find that the stones which the builders select don't yield the results we seek.  We try to build these edifices of earthly satisfaction with dead stones.  Fitting people who are meant to live for more than just this present life into these structures which pass away is to treat them as dead stones.  We force ourselves into places where we aren't designed to fit.

If we are to truly find purpose and meaning we will only find it in a structure which is built on living stones from top to bottom.  Jesus invites us to come and be a part of this. 

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.

He is inviting us to lay aside the projects that can never really make us happy in favor of that which can give us the purpose that we are meant to have.  This purpose can fill our very being and give us a strength of which we don't even imagine ourselves to be capable.  The sense that we have since we are children, the sense that we are special, has become true in Jesus Christ. 

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.

We are being built into a temple holy to the LORD (cf. Eph. 2:21).  Our very bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 6:19).  Without Jesus we build on shifting sands.  All our efforts are cast into the wind.  Our hard work is washed away.  The inexorable tides of change take it away.  Entropy makes it harder and harder to recapture.  But with the Risen One as the cornerstone we are being built into a temple which, while it is in the world, is not of the world.  It is a temple of those whose citizenship is in heaven (cf. Phi. 3:20).  It is a tree whose seed is imperishable (cf. 1 Pet. 1:23).  As Paul tells us, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (cf. 1 Cor. 15:19). 

That isn't us because this temple is built from the ground up with living stones.  Living stones are animated by the Holy Spirit.  And so Paul reminds us that "if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life" to the members of this temple.

Jesus himself prepares the finishing touches of this temple by his death and resurrection:

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,

We are united to Jesus.  Because he is the cornerstone on which we are built we are part of something which stretches beyond this life.  We do not yet experience it fully.  We long for the places he prepares for us in heaven.  Yet even now our connection to heaven defines us.  It is the source of our life and our strength.  This connection is Jesus himself, with whom we are united.

“Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life.

What the psalmist dimmly suggests we now realize fully.

See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.

This temple is not just for us.  It has everything for which the world hungers within its walls.  Let us seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom as are the seven reputable men selected in today's reading from Acts.  Literal widows in the world hunger for their bread.  But it is not just them, we all feel abandoned and hungry.  Everyone  longs for this bread which is only found in the new temple.  When the Spirit leads the Church is animated and able to welcome all of us.  She is empowered to feed us the food only she can offer.

The word of God continued to spread,
and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly;