Homily for 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C 2019
Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-12
Introduction
Weddings are joyful occasions. I get teary-eyed when you see the lovely bride and her fine-looking bridegroom and the love in their eyes as they hold each other's hands. We then go to the reception to enjoy the copious amounts of food and the bountiful supply of drink, especially your great Cajun cooking. Everyone is very happy, even the father of the bride who is paying for it all.
It is no wonder that Jesus often uses the image of wedding banquets to teach us about our relationship with God. And in today's gospel he actually goes to a wedding and performs his first miracle there. For a wedding is the perfect image that combines two great truths: that God is like a bridegroom who loves us his bride and God has prepared a bountiful reception for us in heaven.
Scripture and Theology
Throughout the Old Testament the relationship between God and his people is often described in terms of a marriage. The prophets, particularly, speak of this relationship in terms of a marriage. For some, like the prophets Hosea and Jeremiah, they point to Israel as being an unfaithful bride. Isaiah, from whom our first reading of today came, paints a brighter picture, telling Israel that the bridegroom has forgiven her. God is coming to take his wife Israel back, to resume the joy and love of newlyweds. "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." Isaiah prophesies that this is going to happen very soon.
Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of that promise. He is the one who has come to restore the marital relationship between us and God. That is why John's gospel places this incident of the Wedding at Cana and miracle of the wine, at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry. His presence at the wedding is no accident. John says: "Jesus did this . . . and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him." In other words, Jesus' being at this wedding points back to the spousal relationship of God and Israel and now announces that God has decided to take back his bride, Israel and all of us.
But besides his presence at the wedding, what Jesus does there by providing more wine is equally meaningful. Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to joke that perhaps the reason the wine ran out was because Jesus and his disciples had crashed the party. Jesus did not understand that "plus one" on a wedding invitation does not mean that you can bring all your friends. But more seriously, by providing the wine, Jesus shows God as the bridegroom who provides so generously and so generously for his bride.
- God's providence can be seen in the number of jars. There were six jars filled with water for purification, one number short of the perfect number seven. By changing these fewer than perfect number of water jars into wine, Jesus is suggesting that he has come to improve upon the Old Testament purification rituals. His work is going to cleanse the people in a more complete way and fill them with the full joy of the new wine.
- Even the quantity of the new wine is significant. Each of the six jars held about 20 to 30 gallons of water. I did some math and when changed into wine, those jars contained 120 to 180 gallons or 600 to 900 bottles of wine and as the headwaiter testified, really good wine. Perhaps only celebrity weddings today could manage such extravagance. The prophets had foretold that when the Messiah came, God would lavish good things upon his people like a bridegroom takes care of his bride. Like the feeding of the five thousand and the plentiful leftovers, this miracle of the wine at Cana signifies the lavishness of the new life, of the new way of Jesus.
The Wedding at Cana, is therefore the sign of a completely new relationship between God and humanity, a relationship of providence on God's side, and an expectation of fidelity on our side; Jesus brings about this new marriage.
Christian Life
And so, Jesus has played match-maker between us and God. And in baptism, with our baptismal promises, we each said to God: "Yes, I will marry you." What remains for us now is to live out this marriage-like relationship, by fulfilling our marital obligations to God. Let me offer three ways in which we fulfil our marital obligations to God: love, humility and gratitude.
First, like a faithful bride, we should love God back deeply. God's love should not remain unrequited. Each of us needs to ask himself or herself: "Am I really in love with God or am I merely in love with what he says and what he asks me to do?" Like an arranged marriage, perhaps it was our parents who brought us to the faith. But eventually, we have to personally fall in love with our bridegroom.
In one of my favourite movies, Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye asks his wife Golde: “Do you love me?” She brushes off this question, saying that with all the trouble going on in the town, with their daughters getting married, why talk about love? Besides, "For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked your cow. After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?" But Tevye presses her; he wants to know. "Do you love me?" Finally she admits: "I suppose I do [love you]." God, your bridegroom and mine is asking us? Do you love me? What is your answer?
Second, if we truly love God as a bride loves her man, this love will be shown in how we pray. Mary has shown us how to pray. All she does is go to Jesus and appraise him of the situation, saying, "They have no wine." She does not badger him or demand anything from him. And when he seems to brush her request aside, she is quietly persistent, telling the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Similarly when we pray to God, mere mention of our needs is enough. It is okay to cry, lament, persist in our prayer, but there can be no bribing, no cajoling, no demanding that God does this or else in the way toddlers behave. As our loving spouse, God knows what is good for us and he will act in our best interests, much like couples who have been married for a long time, know what each other needs and can anticipate their needs, can complete their sentences.
Our third response to God's love should be gratitude. From childhood we are taught to say "thank you" for all favours we receive. Even more must we say "thank you" to God for his love, which we don't deserve.
We say "thank you" at the Eucharist, a word which itself means "Thanksgiving." When we come to Mass, we are coming, not only to ask and receive things from God; we are also coming to offer him our words, songs and actions of praise and thanksgiving.
These Eucharistic words of gratitude must then be accompanied by actions of gratitude. That is why the priest dismisses us saying: "Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life." Like a married couple do not love just each other, but love their children and their neighbours as well, we share the abundance of God's love with others.
These Eucharistic words of gratitude must then be accompanied by actions of gratitude. That is why the priest dismisses us saying: "Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life." Like a married couple do not love just each other, but love their children and their neighbours as well, we share the abundance of God's love with others.
Conclusion
Finally, did you notice that Jesus called his mother "Woman." I don't know about Cajun mothers, but if I said this to my mother, well let's just say I might not be here to tell you about it.
But in the case of Jesus, by calling her "Woman" both here and on the Cross, he is pointing out that she is the new Woman, the new Eve. While first Eve was unfaithful, Mary is faithful. Mary is the best example for us of how to be a bride. May we follow her example of faithful, humble and grateful love, as we respond to God's abundant and generous love for us.
