Making Jesus the Cornerstone of Our Lives

Before beginning with the homily today, this first week in the month, we celebrate our known by name weekend, which we celebrate every first weekend of the month.

And it's part of our vision to be a community where everybody is seen, known, and loved.

And so in just a moment, I'll invite you to introduce yourself to somebody new, to get to know a new person, a new name, and to just ask them a simple question: how can I pray for you today?

How can I pray for you today?

So let's take a moment right now, meet somebody new, ask them that question, how can I pray for you today?

And uh at the end of the prayers of the faithful, I'll include a moment of silence, and during that moment of silence, I'll invite us to pray for the person that we just met, as well as the intention that they mentioned.

Uh now, since this is a family mass, of course, we have the tradition of having one of our students uh share a brief reflection on the uh word of God.

And so at this moment, I'm going to invite Artyam uh to come forward and share with us uh his brief reflection on uh the word of God that we heard today.

Uh, can we uh welcome him, please, to uh our ambo.

I don't have to be scared and I don't understand.

It's so and I can trust you.

I like thinking about that.

Okay, if I don't give everything away.

To me, it means if I'm being kind and doing God, means you will help I it makes me feel safe and not alone.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, uh Artium, for your reflection.

Uh Artium, have you ever thought of becoming a priest before?

Think on that.

All right.

Um, thank you very much.

And so for uh the homily today, the um theme of my homily is making Jesus the cornerstone of our lives.

Making Jesus the cornerstone of our lives.

How many people here uh do you use uh Google on a regular basis?

Google?

How many people here you use uh AI sometimes?

ChatGPT?

Okay, alright.

Well, I did kind of a Google slash chat GPT search on uh cornerstone and what exactly the word cornerstone means, and it gave me this definition.

So I'm gonna put this definition on screen.

It says the a cornerstone is traditionally the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation.

It serves as a primary reference point determining the position, orientation, and alignment of the entire structure.

That was a mouthful, wasn't it?

Yeah, but very intelligent.

The definition of a cornerstone.

I don't know if there's anybody here who uh works in construction.

Does anybody here work in construction at all?

No?

Oh, okay, I see.

Okay, one over there.

Now, if you work in structure, if you know anything about construction, um you probably know nowadays we don't really use cornerstones.

It's more decorative than functional, like a as a foundation stone.

And uh actually, we have a cornerstone at our church.

So our parish has a cornerstone.

It's not functional, it's more decorative, and I have a picture of that cornerstone.

Alright, so that's the cornerstone of our church, St.

Joseph's Church.

And it tells the year in which this church was built.

So 1953 was the year in which this church was built.

Now, if anybody can do math, how many years of that from then until now?

I hear a lot of murmuring.

Okay.

Uh 73 years.

So it's been 73 years since this church was built, and that is the cornerstone, the decorative cornerstone uh in our church.

Interesting, right?

1953, the year in which this church was built.

And I also found another picture of what a cornerstone might look like in a building, a more functional element.

So let's go to the next uh picture here.

So you see that big block on the corner, right?

And like the definition said, it sets the direction, the orientation, the alignment of the whole structure.

And when we have a solid and a good cornerstone, a firm foundation, you can build a beautiful building on top of that foundation.

Now, I I also looked up a picture of a very beautiful building that has a firm foundation, a good cornerstone, a good structure.

Do you recognize this building or this church?

Anybody know which it is?

Sagrada.

Sagrada Familia.

You know where it's located?

In Spain, in Barcelona, Spain.

And so we have a good foundation, a good cornerstone, a good a good structure.

You can build a beautiful edifice, a beautiful building, a beautiful church on the top of it.

But when the cornerstone or the foundation is not solid, it's weak, you get something like this.

Does anybody know what this structure is?

You know?

What is it?

The leaning tower of pizza.

The leaning tower of pizza?

No?

The leaning tower of pizza, right?

That foundation was not very strong, and so the tower is leaning.

It's a great attraction, of course.

Many people take pictures.

You've probably seen some people post Instagram photos, like holding it up from a distance or something like that.

It's a great attraction, of course, it's unstable.

The foundation, and over the years, they've tried to fix it and stuff, but they can't finally get it to stand up straight because the foundation is bad.

So, the foundation, the cornerstone of something is very important.

Yes?

It's very important.

And so the word of God today takes this idea of a cornerstone and applies it to Jesus as the cornerstone of our lives.

I'm going to invite us to look at the word of God, what it says today about Jesus being the cornerstone, the firm foundation.

And it calls him the living stone first.

Can we read this scripture verse together?

Come to him a living stone, rejected by human beings, but chosen and precious in the sight of God.

Jesus is a what?

A living, a living stone.

And the next verse shares how we are kind of like little living stones being built on this firm foundation, which is Jesus, the living stone.

So let's go to the next verse and together.

And like living stones, let yourself be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

So we're living stones too, right?

Built on the big living stone, which is Jesus.

And finally, the last verse I'm going to share with you shares how Jesus is the cornerstone.

It uses the word cornerstone.

Last uh verse here, together.

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.

Whoever believes in it, whoever believes in Jesus, the cornerstone, the living stone, shall not be put to shame.

So my message today is very simple.

Just one point.

I invite us today, wherever we are on our faith journey, to accept Jesus as the living stone and the cornerstone of our lives.

I made it simple because I was thinking of our second graders too.

So, second graders, can you raise your hand, second graders?

Alright.

Okay, second grade class from St.

Joseph.

Do you receive Jesus as the cornerstone of your life?

Yes or no?

Yes.

Yes, I'm a little more confident than that.

Yes.

Yeah, okay.

Alright, second grade.

Let's try this again.

You receive Jesus as the cornerstone, the living stone of your lives.

Yes or no?

Yes.

Okay, beautiful.

And I'm gonna give our whole community now a chance to receive Jesus too as a cornerstone and living stone in their lives.

There's this song, uh, it's called Cornerstone, referring to Jesus as that cornerstone, living stone of our lives.

I want to invite us to uh sing this song together.

And if you don't know the words, it's pretty easy to pick up.

Uh it's a pretty easy song to sing.

And in fact, could I invite us at this moment?

Could we stand for a moment to just uh sing this song together?

Uh cornerstone, and we'll have our choir uh lead us, our band lead us in singing this song together.

My hope is on nothing less.

Then Jesus Lord and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest pray, but holy trust in Jesus.

I hope it's dead on nothing left, and it's God and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest way.

I hope it's not Christmas.

Can I ask us to raise our hands in prayer like this, just like this?

Raise your hands.

Okay, and we're singing the next verse together as we raise our hands, uh receiving Jesus as the cornerstone.

I rest on his unchanging grace in every high story again.

We made strong in the Savior's life through the storm.

He is Lord, Lord.

Thank you, Jesus, for being the cornerstone of our lives.

We receive you into our hearts, our minds, our families today.

And because you, Jesus, live and reign forever and ever.

Amen.

The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.