Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's gospel contains a dialogue between Jesus and his blessed mother. The dialogue is not just thrown in to keep the story interesting. It is essential to an understanding on Jesus' mission on earth as well as to the understanding of how we must live our Christian lives[1].

First of all, the setting: It's a wedding feast at Cana in Galilee, and the first public appearance of Jesus with his disciples. At this point in the Gospel of John Jesus had not performed any miracles. When Mary tells Jesus that there is no wine, Jesus appears to snap at her by saying, How does this concern of yours effect me? My hour has not yet come[2]. Then Mary seems to ignore this by telling the waiters to do whatever He says.

The dialogue was not about wine. It was about setting into motion the events which would lead to Jesus' crucifixion, death and resurrection. Once the people saw Jesus' glory they would proclaim Him as Messiah, making His hour, His death, inevitable. Mary does not respond to Jesus' question because she herself knows who He is and knows that it is now time to put His mission into motion. Jesus transforms the water into wine, by doing so he will soon transform wine into His blood.

So, the reading is about the gift of the Body and Blood of the Lord on the cross and in the Eucharist.

For Zion’s sake, I will not be silent. For Jerusalem’s sake, I will not be quiet. That comes from the first reading for this Sunday. When something wonderful happens, people talk about it, loudly, or, at least they should. We are very loud about some things which in the long run do not effect the vast majority of us, such as sports or movies, but are quiet about the one event the really matters and that has an infinite effect on each of us: the Christ event. My brother, my sister: we need to be proclaiming Jesus Christ with our lives as well as our words.

Think of this. We have received the greatest Christmas present there could possibly be. We have received the Lord. The gift is not a one time event. He keeps giving Himself to us in the Eucharist.

We need to be shouting to the world that Jesus is here, among us, in His Body and Blood. Instead, we are silent when it comes to the Eucharist. Perhaps, in our efforts to find common ground with our Protestant brothers and sisters, we barely mention what the Eucharist means to Catholics. During Christmas Day the Most Holy Sacrament was exposed here in our parish and very few people comes to visit him. Tuesday and Thursday we have also our Lord exposed in the small chapel and there few people with him. And it is sad, very sad.

Sometimes a person might ask you, “What is it about the Catholic Church that grips you? Is it the services, the music, the art? Is it the fact that Catholics know where they stand in areas of dogma, faith, and morality? What is it that grips you?” What is it that grips us? We need to look closely into ourselves and respond with the deep reality of Catholicism: We really believe in the Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. We love receiving Him in communion. This to us is fundamental to our faith life.

We proclaim the Eucharistic Presence so that others can join us in union with Jesus at the Last Supper, on the Cross and at His Resurrection. We proclaim the Eucharistic Presence so others can join us in the Lord’s re-creation of the world through the gift of His Body and Blood.

Today, the second Sunday in Ordinary Time, during a weeding at Canna, water has been changed into wine, and during the celebration of the mass wine will be changed into blood. My brother, my sister: do not be quiet about it. Tell the world that God loves us in ways infinitely beyond our deepest hopes and gives us a gift infinitely greater than our deepest needs ■

[1] Sunday 17th January, 2010, 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Readings: Isaiah 62:1-5. Proclaim his marvellous deeds to all the nations—Ps 95(96):1-3, 7-10. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. John 2:1-11 [St Anthony].
[2] John 2:1-11.

ilustration: Juan de Flandes, The Marriage Feast at Cana, ca. 1498–1500, (Netherlandish, active Spain by 1496, died 1519), Oil on panel, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).