“What then is this that is written," says Jesus in the Temple to his enemies, the High Priests and Scribes, "'The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on anyone it will crush him.”
At that moment the evil tenants of the vineyard decide to kill the heir, they reject the stone and are, as a matter of fact, crushed or pulverized some thirty years later by the Romans. And a new foundation is established, the vineyard of the Church is given to new tenants, Jews and Gentiles united to God as walls to a cornerstone in Christ. Our Lord's prophecy was fulfilled and it speaks with power today.
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on anyone it will crush him.
Terrifying. You cannot go against God, the rock of reality itself, and escape destruction. Witness our present anti-culture which is hurtling fast into insanity, to say nothing of wicked tenants, those wolves in sheep's clothing, those false prophets, those apostate mutineers who deny the Faith once delivered. Who champion behavior explicitly condemned in the revealed Word of God and are silent or complicit in the face of godless secularism with all its increasing tyranny.
They will have their reward, they fell upon the rock and will be destroyed. The late Bishop Terwilliger put it well, "If you go against the Holy Spirit you will be relentlessly destroyed by that same Spirit." And so to us.
Are we not placed by God as tenants of the vineyard of our souls, the Church writ most intimately, responsible for producing the good fruit of righteousness, of faith and love? We are, and yet we sin. "Oh wretched man that I am," says the Apostle and so do we in the face of our own imperfection reflected in the light of divine truth.
Knowing this, and know it we must, what choice do we have but to repent like the Prodigal and return to the Lord crying out for mercy. He, while we are still a long way out, there's comfort in that, runs to embrace us and, forgiving our sins, reclothes us in the garments of sanctity and raises us up to new life. Take heart.
And here endeth the lesson except to say several ranchers came up after the Mass and said, "You know, LSP, I learned something. I'd always thought 'fall upon the rock' meant tripping over it, like stubbing your toe. Never thought it meant 'fall upon' as in 'fall upon your enemy.' Thank you for that."
They're a kinetic bunch, I tell you.
Ride on,
LSP
