lapidem angularem: Christ the cornerstone

While I have already treated this subject in the section Christ, the Cornerstone, I recently came across a very interesting passage in the book of Job. After all that Job had been through and all his “friends” put him through, God then humiliates him to the dust – that is, before lifting him back up and blessing even more than before. In showing Job that he is, well, basically nothing, God asks Job if he knows anything, really, at all about the Creator and His handiwork. In that discourse God asks him:

Where wast thou when I laid up the foundations of the earth? tell me if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Upon what are its bases grounded? or who laid the corner stone thereof, When the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful melody?
(Job 38:4-7)

 
While, on a superficial level, one can write this off as just saying, “Where were you, you ignorant nothing, when I did My work of creation?”, nonetheless, it is unique in that here God notes that there was praise and joyful melody regarding “the corner stone”.

I can’t go into it here (I hope to later), but there is an entire deposit of Wisdom literature where created Wisdom is spoken of as being present before God when He created the universe (see, for example, Prov 8:22-9:6). We know that the Word is uncreated Wisdom, but Scripture reveals to us that when God created the universe He had before Him that created Wisdom. This is a clear reference to the Humanity (created) of Christ, that is, to the Incarnate Word. Jesus is one Divine Person (Wisdom) with two natures: divine (uncreated, eternal) and human (created, temporal). In creating the universe God first willed Christ, the Word Incarnate, the cornerstone – lapidem angularem (Job 38:6), He willed to build all upon Him as the supreme cornerstone – summo angulari lapide Christo Iesu (Eph 2:20). All creation is with Christ in mind (He is the center of all creation – Col 1:15-20).

For convenience, here is the link of a pertinent video on Christ the Cornerstone:
 

 
Blessings in Christ the cornerstone!
fr maximilian mary dean, F.I.