Image: Shutterstock.com. Image ID: 1210022272: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - OCTOBER 13, 2018: The fresco of The wedding at Cana in church kostel Svatého Václava by S. G. Rudl (1900).
First Reading: Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm: 95:1-3. 7-10. “Proclaim his marvellous deeds to all the nations.”
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
Gospel Acclamation: cf 2 Thessalonians 2:14
Gospel: John 2:1-11
++++Please listen to my audio recordings of the readings, prayers and reflections for the Second Sunday Ordinary Time. Year C - Sunday, 20 January 2019 by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-2c (EPISODE: 136)
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In this weekend’s gospel, the Wedding in Cana, where the wine runs out and threatens massive embarrassment to the bridal parties, the words of Jesus never cease to challenge and intrigue: “woman, why turn to me? My hour has not yet come.” This is an unusual response. But it matches with something later in the same incident. The steward comments about the miraculous and extravagant and good quality of wine that Jesus’ miracle provides: “people generally serve the best wine first and keep the cheaper sort till the guests have had plenty to drink, but you have kept the best wine until last.”
Christ’s ministry was an extensive one; his mission was all-encompassing. It’s final focus would be nothing less than the fulfilment of his mission through something he described as his great and ultimate “Hour” or “Time” when he as the sacrificial Lamb of God would offer his very self for the life of the world. Christ’s great message is that God leaves the best for last, and the good news is that at the very last, God will be utterly faithful to us and fulfil all his promises to us.
Everything about God, and Christ’s earthly life and mission and his suffering, death and resurrection, is TOP Shelf. No half-baked quality here, but the best of everything for us.
At the very outset of his public ministry, Mary his beloved mother asks Our Lord to help a wedding couple in a socially embarrassing situation at their wedding reception. Christ turns this simple act of kindness into a SIGN of the Kingdom and a sign of the meaning of his ministry, which is to provide the best wine of mercy, compassion, inclusion, charity and heartfelt invitation into the Banquet feast of the kingdom.
He is surely asking this question of his Mother in an ironic way? “Why turn to me? My hour has not yet come to provide the Best wine of the Wedding Feast of the Kingdom of God, where I will be the Bridegroom and the People of God will be the Bride.” Of course he immediately helps and uses this incident as a foretaste of what is to come. And what a beautiful foretaste it is.
If this is just a sample of the Kingdom, then our minds are truly blown. And astounded we should be. This is the richness, the graciousness the absolute non-stingy fullness that God operates out of all the time. This is what we are invited into.
This gospel would have to be one of the most delightful and profound of passages. It has so many levels and is rich in symbolism.
You can tell from the subtle difference between what is said and what is done, that the translation of this particular incident is complicated and our traditional translations do not quite capture the full picture of what is going on here.
If we could have seen the faces of Jesus and Mary as they spoke, if we could have observed their body language and the tone of voice with which they spoke, the true meaning might be even clearer.
To expand on the situation, this is probably a more accurate picture of what was going on: Mary turned to Jesus and said, “They have run out of wine.” (This situation would be an intolerable humiliation to this humble village wedding couple and their families, and a terrible failure of the strong traditions of hospitality expected in that time and culture). Mary was clearly feeling for the terrible embarrassment and shame that would have occurred for this poor family.
Perhaps they could not afford the sufficient amount or wine required. If we could see Jesus reaction, it would reveal much. He says to her, “Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come.” Or perhaps better still, this can be more effectively rendered as “My Lady, is this the time when I will pour forth the new wine of the Kingdom? Surely this is not THAT time?” He is being ironic, and speaking as a Prophet.
Jesus knows that he has come into this world to usher in the fullness of the Kingdom, and to pour forth the new wine of the covenant sealed in his own blood, poured forth to ransom all. He knew that the new wine of the Kingdom would only come in its fullness when he had suffered and died and rose again.
I think he had a twinkle in his eye (and perhaps even a tinge of sadness as he noted that this was all ahead of him…. It was all yet to come. However, this moment would be a little forerunner and sign of the true wine of the Kingdom which is about God’s utter faithfulness, God’s graciousness and mercy and God’s Kingdom of joy, justice and inclusion.
The Virgin Mary knew he was going to do something about this situation, for he was graciousness and compassion personified. Mary trusted in him totally. Mary also surely knew that he was to do greater things in the future, of which this example was only a foretaste….
It strikes me too, that John the Baptist has been preaching the imminent coming of the Messiah. John the Baptist had warned of a time of God’s judgement and retribution. This wedding miracle, however, makes it quite clear, that the Messiah will come not with a big stick of judgement, but with the graciousness, mercy, generosity and the Joy of a time of great Jubilee celebration. Jesus, the Messiah would characterise the Kingdom of God as a messianic Banquet feast, rather than an apocalyptic time of punishment and judgement and retribution.
Perhaps Jesus reply to Mary (remembering that he was still in the very early days of his ministry), also indicated, “So, is this how it is to be? Not fasting, austerity, punishment and severity, but the overflowing generosity and joy of God’s time of favour? So be it then.
Let us see already unfolding the outpouring of God’s overwhelming generosity. Let us see! Let us taste! Fill those stone jars over there, and let us see which it is to be, (For Jesus trusted totally in his Heavenly Father and was utterly obedient to the Father’s will, as Mary would certainly have known when she asked the question of Jesus and when she instructed the attendants to obey Jesus’ instructions to the letter!),
There is something else, too. This is a profound miracle and a beautiful sign. It is a reminder of God’s blessing of marriage, and the gracious generosity of God’s love for us, and his joining with us in the joyful and sacred moments of life. Also, what a wonderful miracle to reveal God’s message.
Why did Jesus not reserve this amazing sign for a more so-called “important” event, like a dinner where Herod was present, or where Pontius Pilate was there to be convinced beyond doubt of Jesus’ credentials. But, of course, that is not God’s ways. That would be human thinking…
God deliberately chose a humble family wedding, in a small and poor village to show the utter fullness of God’s glory and graciousness. God’s message is for the poor. God’s Kingdom is found in the “everyday” and the “ordinary,” and the humble shall inherit the Kingdom. It is also for the ordinary people that Jesus came to bring the Good News, just as much as the high and the mighty.
It also says something about the importance of the ordinary, everyday events of our home life, our work life and our social life. God’s Kingdom is to be encountered just as much in the everyday and ordinary events of life as in the occasional and the extraordinary events that can occur.
This wedding feast miracle “brought God right into the home circle and into the ordinary things of life. Jesus' action at Cana of Galilee shows what he really thought of a home. God "manifested his glory," and that showing of his true Glory took place within a home.
There is a strange paradox in the attitude of many people to the place they call home. They would admit at once that there is no more precious place in all the world than one’s home; and yet, at the same time, they would also have to admit that in it they claim the right to be far more discourteous, far more boorish, far more selfish, far more impolite than they would dare to be in public.
It is not uncommon that people can treat the ones they most love in a way that we would never dare to treat a chance acquaintance. So often it is strangers who see us at our best and those who live with us who see us at our worst. We ought ever to remember that it was in a humble home that Jesus manifested forth his glory.
To him home was a place for which nothing but his best was good enough. It was where he put his best foot forward. We have already seen that in the East hospitality was always a sacred duty. It would have brought unspeakable embarrassment and shame to that home that day if the wine had run out.
It was to save a humble Galilean family from hurt that Jesus put forth his power. It was in sympathy, in kindness, in understanding for ordinary humble folk that Jesus always acted.
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FR. PAUL W. KELLY.
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN. Volume 1, (Chapters 1 to 7). REVISED EDITION. Translated with an Introduction
and Interpretation, by WILLIAM BARCLAY. THE WESTMINSTER PRESS, PHILADELPHIA. 1975.
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{ “Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin” -published 2011, Composed and Sung by Jeffrey M. Ostrowski
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May God bless and keep you.
Second Sunday Ordinary Time. Year C
(Sunday, 20 January 2019)
(EPISODE: 136 )
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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Brothers and sisters, the Lord is full of love and mercy. And so, as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries, let us acknowledge our sins.
Lord Jesus, you came to reconcile us to the Father and to one another: Lord, have mercy//You heal the wounds of our sin and division: Christ, have mercy// You intercede for us with the Father: Lord, have mercy//
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.
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Sundays Ordinary II
Eucharistic Prayer II
Communion side. pwk: RH
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Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.
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