CENTENNIAL

One hundred years ago this weekend, the first week of May 1906, Mass was celebrated for the first time in the new parish of Corpus Christi. The parish had been incorporated as a legal entity in the City of New York and the Archdiocese of New York just two months before. Since that first week of May 1906, Mass has been celebrated in four venues with the people of this parish.

One hundred years ago, the first Mass was celebrated in the corner stores underneath the apartment building next door. The building still was under construction, but the stores were complete and were used as a chapel. The new pastor, Father Dooley, was housed in an apartment on the first floor, just over the chapel.

The first church building was opened on June 30, 1907. A three-story building that included a church and a school was the place of celebration of worship until that building was found to be inadequate and was torn down in 1935.

While the current building in which we worship was being constructed in 1935-36, Mass was celebrated in Horace Mann High School at Columbia University's Teachers College, the building just across the street at Broadway and West 121^st Street. On October 25, 1936, the current church was dedicated, and it is in this building that worship, education, and parish activities have occurred since then.

So we have had four sites of worship--a corner store, the first church, a high-school auditorium, and today's building. In the dedicatory booklet for the current building, the writer notes that the parishioners work together with one purpose: "the glory of God, the edification of our neighbors, the conservation and advancement of our spiritual, intellectual, moral, and physical life--that we and our children may grow more and more into the stature of Christ--our chief cornerstone."

The Acts of the Apostles, read throughout the Easter season, delights in using Psalm 118 to refer to Jesus Christ, the true cornerstone. Frequently, the early preachers quote the text "The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone," a quote used in Peter's sermon today, as well as the selection for today's responsorial psalm. Psalm 118 in fact is the most quoted part of the Old Testament to appear in the New Testament. Peter is hauled before the courts for healing a cripple in the name of Jesus. He proclaims Jesus, the rejected and crucified one, as the resurrected one, the cornerstone. Christ is cornerstone of the new community, the new creation, and the new world created by God.

Our community has gathered in different venues for worship, and this weekend we especially give thanks for one hundred years of continuous worship on Morningside Heights. We certainly give thanks for this current church, one of the most beautiful in a city with many beautiful places of worship. But we also give thanks that we are part of the clock of Christ, as he indicates in the Good Shepherd Gospel. We give thanks in the words of the First Letter of John, proclaiming that we are God's children now.

Our parish worships, educates, gathers. Our parish has a glorious history and, please God, a fruitful future. But the most important thing about us must remain that Christ is our cornerstone, and without Christ, what we do is meaningless.

The image of the temple of Jerusalem loomed large for early Christians. Jesus had spoken of his own body as the new temple. If it be destroyed, it would be rebuilt in three days. So with the crucifixion and resurrection, the body of Christ was the new temple, replacing the temple of Jerusalem as a sign of God's presence in this world. The temple needed a cornerstone. The cornerstone is Jesus Christ.

In the New Testament, Christians are called the body of Christ--Corpus Christi. Christians become the dwelling place of God's Spirit. Paul says that Jews and Gentiles mare made one in the body of Christ, where they are members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. The new temple is being built as more and more are baptized and incorporated into the body of Christ. In his first letter, Paul says that we are living stones allowing ourselves to be built into a spiritual house for which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.

Wherever we worship, in a store, a school auditorium, or a church, we are the body of Christ. We are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit as long as Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our faith and our lives.

So let us celebrate with thanksgiving today as our Good Shepherd has led us through one hundred years of worship. In paraphrasing Psalm 23, we can say that the Lord in our shepherd. He has given us Broadway at West 121^st Street as a green pasture. He restores us when we have experienced the dark valleys of World War I, World War II, the Depression, September 11, the personal valleys of illness, pain, and death. He promises that he is with us always, even in dark times. He has anointed us at baptism and confirmation. He has prepared the table of the Eucharist for is for one hundred years. Even in dark times, we know that our cup runneth over with blessings. Surely goodness and kindness shall follow us all the days of our lives. We have and shall continue to dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come.

With Jesus Christ as our cornerstone, we shall not want.

Ceremony on May 7, 2006, at Broadway and 121^st Street to mark the first Mass in the parish, said on May 6, 1906, in the original storefront chapel.

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners,

but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones

and members of the household of God,

built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.

Through him the whole structure is held together

and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;

in him you also are being built together

into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

--Ephesians 2:19-22

                God our Father,
                from living stones, your chosen people,
                you built an eternal temple to your glory.
                Increase the spiritual gifts you have given

                to Corpus Christi Church,
                so that your faithful people may continue to grow
                into the new and eternal Jerusalem.
                We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.
                Amen.

Click here for centennial Mass, October 22, 2006.

Click here for centennial events calendar.

Click here for centennial prayers.

Click here for Columbia Spectator article about centennial.

Click here for centennial of first Mass, May 7, 2006.

Click here for our year of preparation.

Click here to learn about our centennial needs.

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