RBWords

     I think most of us at one time or the other have heard the "jingle" in an ad for an insurance company: "Get a piece of the rock!"  The implication, of course, is that this particular company is solid and one may be confident in it.  But the image is far more ancient.  Any visitor to the Holy Land can see that much of the countryside is either rock or sand!  The importance of laying a good foundation for a building was not lost on those who lived there in Isaiah's or Jesus' time.  Each year there are reports of earthquakes and in places where the foundations of buildings are not on rock, the damage is far more severe.  I am reminded of the earthquake in the San Francisco area in October 1989 when I was visiting there?  An area of San Francisco that was built on sand was almost totally destroyed.

     Where do we put our trust?  What is our rock?  Our political and social culture invites us to put that ultimate trust in our civil constitutional structures and make patriotism a substitute for faith.  Patriotism is a good thing for social cohesion, but it cannot take the place of faith in God.  Our capitalistic economic system invites us to put our faith in the economy.  Spend and buy and invest have almost become acts of faith.  We cannot spend or buy our way into eternal life.  All of these supposedly solid elements of our lives can fall into dust in the face of terrible personal and social tragedy.  It is our faith that sustains us in the face of those cruel failures.  Jesus and Isaiah point to the true Rock on which to build our lives and hopes.  "The stone that was rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone!" (Psalm 118:22)    It is being proclaimed to us in this Advent season.  Our "rock" is a person whose birth, life and death and future coming we celebrate in the liturgical year - Jesus Christ!  AMEN