Fr Jack SJ MD: Would You Like Some Wine? Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 62:1-5

Ps 96

1 Cor 12:4-11

Jn 2:1-11

Today’s readings are rich. The Gospel is one of the most well-known

narratives in all of scripture. The late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow noted in his commentary on this miracle that the story is so well told it does not require comment. The narrative of the wedding at Cana is unique to John's Gospel. There is nothing like it in Matthew, Mark or Luke. Be that as it may a lot of paper has been filled with speculation and questions that are not relevant to the narrative or the message.

Among the questions that have occupied many one hears, Why was Mary there? Why were the disciples invited? What was the function of the steward? Other speculations border on the impossibly pious. Some writers have used the short exchange between Jesus and Mary to write long speculative treatises on the mother-son relationship spanning their lifetimes.

These questions and arguments are nothing more than distractions. The importance of this narrative is apparent in the final verse: "Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him."

"the beginning of his signs . . . “the revelation of his glory.” The prophecies had come to fulfillment.

In John's Gospel the revelation of Jesus is seen as much in what he is and does as in what he says. The importance of the signs in John can never be overestimated. Father Marrow again, "The sole end of the account of the miracle at Cana is to believe in him" just as the apostles believed in him upon witnessing this first sign.

More important than the meaning of Mary's question or the number of jars of water is the fact of Jesus' signs or miracles.

Biblical scholar Colin Brown stresses, "We cannot have Christianity

without the miracle-working Jesus of the four Gospels. We cannot have his teaching without his signs any more than we can have his signs without his teaching. The miracles of Jesus provide the key to understanding Jesus . . . "

"No more shall people call you forsaken or your land desolate." Isaiah reminds us that God never abandons His people even when they have abandoned Him.

Marriages and wedding feasts were used in scripture as ways to describe God's salvation and announce the Kingdom of God. Thus we heard, "As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you." This prophecy is fulfilled lavishly and abundantly in the Gospel.

Imagine hosting a wedding and suddenly finding 150 more bottles of wine, and fine wine at that! This is the kingdom promised in Isaiah. It is a kingdom in which our needs are met not with mere abundance but with superabundance, overflowing and shaken down.

What may get missed is that while the abundance of wine demonstrated God’s infinite generosity, God's greatest gift to us is his Son. Jesus was revealed in that action at Cana. The greatest of which is not the miracles narrative. The greatest of signs is God sending his Son to live among us. What are we to do in light of that gift?

Paul described the abundance of gifts bestowed on us by the Holy Spirit. These are gifts that we must discover and cultivate within ourselves, gifts and combinations of gifts, that are unique to each of us. Many of us waste too much time wishing and striving for gifts we have not been given rather than cultivating the ones we possess. I recall a young woman, one of my medical patients, who wanted to be a world-class runner as was her college roommate. However, there was a problem. She had neither the body type, skeletal structure, nor the muscle type to ever be a world class runner. Fortunately she gave up the insane training and dieting when she realized that she had other gifts but competitive distance running wasn't, and never would be, one of them. As Paul wrote: “There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; different forms of service but the same Lord; different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.”

No matter how much DEI is rammed down our throats or how much we are hammered with the false notion that “you can be anything you want to be” —including a man becoming a woman by a combination of choice and hormonal legerdemain—the reality is that each of us has unique gifts while lacking others, each of us has unique abilities counterbalanced by inabilities. In neither case are the gifts identical with those of our neighbor. To pretend otherwise is delusional.

As we heard in the Gospel antiphon, "God has called us through the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." The psalmist instructs us what to do

when we possess it: "Announce his salvation, day after day. Tell his glory among the nations; among all peoples, his wondrous deeds."

___________________________________________

The only reason for the choice of photos is color. Getting very gray up here, extreme cold and some snow coming in. Every once in a while during the winter my eyes are hungry for color. Grateful for the couple of hundred thousand photos on the computer, some of which are in black and white.