psalm 122: a community... supported and supporting. 34th sunday C Christ the King

Today as we celebrate Christ the King we reflect on Psalm 122, one of the so-called songs of ascents because it is sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.  Able-bodied Jews are mandated, they are obliged to go to Jerusalem to worship God several times a year and this is their song, a song filled at once with gladness and excitement, even from the time the invitation is made, to the time when they have already arrived at the gates of Jerusalem, finally setting foot on that beloved land. "I rejoiced because they said to me, 'We will go up to the house of the LORD.'  And now we have set foot within your gates, O Jerusalem."

Then as the pilgrim contemplates this beautiful and holy Jerusalem, he praises it as a place built as a city strongly compact – it is secure, it is stable, it is the symbol of their unity as a people, the unity of the twelve tribes.  And this city is not only a center of worship but it is also the place where the thrones of judgment, the judgement seats of the house of David is located.  Remember David's dynasty was not just a political dynasty but an assurance of God's presence with his people, in whose line the messiah was promised.  This is the place where justice is dispensed and this is the place where mercy is obtained and thus the pilgrim always comes home justified and made righteous.

All in all expressed in utmost brevity and in flowery poetry a pilgrim coming to Jerusalem experiences communion with God followed by a communion of brothers and sisters from the different tribes, a communion with one another.  This is what it means when the pilgrim says Jerusalem is built as a city strongly compact.

In one of the writings of St. Gregory the Great he speaks of this holy city Jerusalem as the symbol of the church, the community of God's people, our community.  Built as a city strongly compact this community is built of stones fitted together one on top of the other, and one stone hemmed by another from one side, and the other hemming the same from another side – strongly compact.  The one that supports another is in turn supported by another.  Thus each one of us is sustained and sustaining, each one of us is supported and supporting.  The closest support one another.  Strongly compact.

Is this our experience of community - supported and supporting?  Is this our experience of church - sustained and sustaining?

In a city strongly compact the strength of a stone on this side of a city wall can be affected even by a stone a mile away.  Yes it can.  But remember it is the closest stone that support and sustain.  The closest.  But how is it that some people love Asilo de Molo but find it difficult to love the person under the same roof?

St. Gregory said, “Indeed, if I do not make an effort to accept you as you are and you do not strive to accept me as I am, the building of love between us can no longer be erected”.

All this structure, strongly compact, all this full weight of stones one on top of the other and hemmed in, side by side, stands on one foundation stone - Jesus. The foundation sustains the stones but the stones do not sustain the foundation.  We come to Jesus.  We are in need of Jesus.  We cannot stand without Jesus. 

We come to Jesus who sits on the judgement seats of the house of David.  He is our king because, he dispenses justice, he dispenses mercy, he forgives.  In the gospel, of all the people standing there on the cross only the other criminal came to know this?  And this is what makes us a city strongly compact.  Like the criminal we need to form the consciousness that we too are in need of mercy and forgiveness, and like the criminal we have to learn to be merciful and forgiving, to be compassionate to one another.  This is how we are sustained and becoming sustaining, this how we are supported and supporting.

As we end the Jubilee Year of Mercy, let us never forget on what foundation this church, this community stands, let us never forget on what foundation we all stand.