Vigils Reading

CHRIST THE CORNERSTONE

By Dom Damasus Winzen2

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Stone is firm and lasting. Builders test their stones, selecting the most

solid for foundations on which to rear the whole building, for cornerstones to

hold the wall together, or for headstones which will lock into a single mass the

entire structure. Stone likewise offers firm resistance to the thrust of an enemy;

it will crush him upon whom it falls; it will bruise those who fall against it.

God is the “Stone of Israel”, because he is a God of truth and his mercies

endure forever. His faithfulness towards his people is the firm and precious

cornerstone which is laid in Zion. In Christ Jesus, God’s loyalty becomes

manifest. He is the stone that the leaders of Israel rejected when they crucified

him… He became the cornerstone when he rose from the dead. When we try to

penetrate into the meaning of the symbolism of the cornerstone, we discover

that various ideas are fused in this picture. The idea of the foundation stone is

clearly expressed in Isaiah: Thus says the Lord God: behold I laid in Zion for a

foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation:

he that believes shall not make haste. Christ is the foundation stone, for

another foundation no one can lay but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.

He alone has wrought our redemption by dying for us and rising for us. We

depend entirely on his work and on his strength. The Hebrew word used in

Psalm 117, rosch pinnah — still surviving in our word “pinnacle” — has been

translated in various ways as “head of the corner,” “cornerstone,” or “head

stone.” The idea of the cornerstone implies that Christ is a part of the

foundation, but its most important, visible part, the part which binds the walls.

This is true of Christ, because in him the two walls of God and mankind, of the

Jews and the Gentiles, and the Old and the New Testament meet…

In recent years, more and more scholars agree that rosch pinnah is rather

the head stone, or capstone, which holds a vault or arch together. The Risen

Savior is indeed the headstone of the spiritual Temple in which the whole

building culminates, which holds it together and defines its design. This three-

fold meaning of Christ as the cornerstone is well expressed by Cynewulf in his

poem “Christ.”…

Thou art the wall stone

that the workers once threw out from the work,

well it becomes thee that thou be head

of a mighty hall and weld together

its wide walls in fast union,

Flint unbreakable, that throughout earth’s dwelling

all that have eyes may wonder ever more,

O Lord of glory.