Vigils Reading

LET YOURSELF BECOME AN ALTAR STONE
From a homily by Origen2

All of us who believe in Christ Jesus are called ‘living stones’ in the words of scripture: ‘Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’.

You know that in the case of earthly stones the builder takes care to lay first the strongest and most massive stones as the foundation, so that the whole weight of the building can rest upon them. The next stones, of not quite such good quality, are laid upon the foundation stones; and so on according to the strength of the stone: the weakest are laid at the top, near the roof. It must be understood that this applies equally to living stones, some of which are foundations of our spiritual building. Who are these stones that are laid in the foundation? ‘The apostles and prophets’. This is Paul’s teaching: ‘Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.

To prepare yourselves more zealously…to construct this building, to be one of the stones near the foundation, you must realize that Christ himself is the foundation of the building which we are describing. Paul the Apostle declares this to be so: ‘No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ’. Happy are they who have built holy, religious buildings on so noble a foundation.

Now in this building which is the Church there must be an altar. Moreover I believe that there are among you those who as ‘living stones’ are able to become an altar–those of you who have resolved to dedicate yourselves to prayer, to offer God supplications day and night, and to immolate your sacrifices–and that, it is with you that Jesus builds his altar.

Think of the worth to be discerned in altar stones. ‘Joshua built an altar, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, of unhewn stones, upon which no one has lifted an iron tool’. What do you think these unhewn stones represent? It is for each one’s conscience to tell whether he or she is whole and perfect, whether one has integrity, whether one is without impurity or spot… To my mind, those whole and spotless stones must be the holy apostles who together form but one stone because of their unity of heart and soul. Indeed it is said that they ‘all with one accord devoted themselves to prayer’, and that they said: ‘Lord, who knowest the hearts of all’. For those who can pray with one accord, with one voice and one spirit, are indeed worthy to have been built together into a single altar on which Jesus offers sacrifices to his father. But we for our part, we too must ensure that we all agree and are united in the same mind and same judgment; that we ‘do nothing from selfishness or conceit’ but live ‘having the same love, and of one mind’. So let us too try to become altar stones.

2 Homilies IX, 1-2: PG 12, 871-872.