"Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a
corner-stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundations" (Isaias
XXVIII. 16), "the stone which the builders rejected" (Ps. CXVII. 22).
This is one of the promises confided to the chosen nation. Our Blessed
Lord claims it as applying to Himself (St. Matt. XXI. 42, St. Luke XX.
17), and St. Peter and St. Paul both speak of it as if it were well
known. (Acts IV. 11, 1 Peter II. 6-8, Rom. IX. 33, Eph. II. 20).
He is the Corner-stone Who is coming to make both one (Eph. II. 14),
both the Jews to whom belongs the promise (Rom. IX. 4) and the Gentiles
who are "co-partners of His promise" (Eph. III. 6). He is coming to
preach peace to them that are far off as well as to them that are nigh,
coming to make "the strangers and foreigners" feel that they are
"fellow-citizens with the saints and the domestics of God," coming to
weld all together into one great building of which He Himself is to be
the chief Corner-stone, binding together the two walls (Jews and
Gentiles), supporting each stone and keeping each in its place, a holy
temple in the Lord, "a habitation of God in the spirit." Such is the
picture St. Paul draws for us (Eph. II), and such is the picture which
the antiphon for to-day brings before our minds. "All one in Christ
JESUS." He is the King of all nations, the Desired of all nations, the
Corner-stone of the whole building; with Him there is neither Jew nor
Gentile (Gal. III. 28).
Let me tell Him even now before He comes how I long to share in the
great work so dear to His Sacred Heart, let me offer myself to
co-operate with Him in His designs for the human race which He loves so
well.
Let me be ready to labour, to suffer, to pray, to spend and be spent, if
only I may thus bring Him a few stones for His Holy Temple. I was
"sometime afar off" but now have been "made nigh by the Blood of Christ"
(Eph. II. 13). "What shall I render?" (Ps. CXV. 12).