CORNERSTONE: PROVIDING STRUCTURE TO SALVATION
Have you ever played a game of Jenga? And there’s that one piece that you know is just holding that structure together? You wouldn’t dare remove it, right?
You can think of that piece as the cornerstone. Although it is not rejected (since all Jenga blocks are uniform), it provides structure in a way that is essential to the existence of that said structure. Removing that crucial Jenga block would be like removing a cornerstone, turning the structure into a pile of rubble.
But sometimes in our lives, the cornerstone is hard to identify. Sometimes, the cornerstone is counter-cultural.
In today’s gospel, we learn to see Jesus as the cornerstone, the stone that is rejected by the builders. The Pharisees reject Jesus because his teachings challenge the status quo. His teachings are counter-cultural, but little did they know that He is the way, the truth, and the life—providing structure to salvation.
Our Catholic faith is our cornerstone. It is counter-cultural and rejected by many, but without it, our lives would seemingly fall apart, toppling trying to support the weight of our Jenga-like circumstances and affairs of the world.
In the past year, it feels like the world has dropped a butt-ton of Jenga blocks on me. I went through a huge life transition, ready to commit fully to the Lord but was confronted with so many challenges that my mental health suffered. The one Jenga block that saved me was the Lord. Now, I didn’t have any visions but I still saw His presence–through Caritas 60, through my new partner, and through my church community at Most Holy Trinity. My heart broke open and His love flowed in.
My love for God is the one Jenga block I hope I never remove. In a world where COVID and wars pile on even more Jenga blocks, let us not forget that Christ is the cornerstone for all of us. For only He can support the weight of the world (and infinitely more) through ways only He knows how.
So in this Lenten season, have faith. Allow Christ to be your companion and your cornerstone in life. Even when life seems to throw all these Jenga blocks at you, you’ll be able to take them on. He won’t let you fall.
Tuan Anh Nguyen
Photo credit: Alicia Purdy