Thursday, 7/3/14
For this feast of St. Thomas the Apostle we will look at how
Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians compared our church to a structure with the
prophets and the apostles as its foundation.
The way in which Apostles like Thomas can be compared to the
foundation stones in a noble church structure is that just as a building is
only kept from tottering when it is anchored in place by strong foundation
stones, and when the stones in the walls are in exact alignment with the
foundation stones; so can our church only survive as a true Christian church if
our beliefs are in direct alignment with what the Apostles taught.
The second major element in Paul’s wonderful comparison of
our church society to a church’s building is Christ as the capstone. For that
metaphor Paul had in mind a church building that like a classic gothic building
was an extension of the principle of an arch.
To help your imagination in seeing the function of such a
capstone, picture Buddhists constructing the stone arch entranceway to their temple.
They pile up and mold soft clay to the twelve-foot height and shape of the
stone entrance. Then, ten feet apart against the left and right sides of the
mound, they stack slightly rounded cut stones that are twelve inches on the
outside, but only ten on the inside.
When the stacked stones reach the desired height, and the
top of the stacks are two and a half feet apart; the masons cuts a curved stone
that is two and a half feet on the top, but only two on the lower side of the
curve. That is the capstone. After the builders fit it in between the ascending
stacks of stones on the sides, it locks them in place, and they will stay in
place for ten thousand years. So, with Jesus holding his church in place it
will last forever.
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