Homily for 2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

January 19, 1986

John 2: 1-12

Assumption, San Leandro, Calif.

Our community's opportunities to celebrate and preach at a parish (or convent) Mass have been pretty sparse lately. So, once again, I post an almost ancient homily.  We're hoping there may be more openings when we move at the end of this week to our new residence in College Park and will be closer to other parishes.

“There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there” (John 2: 1).

The Wedding at Cana (Gerard David, ca. 1500)

Here’s a beautiful gospel, one with many facets to it.  We’ll look at just two:  the wedding and the mother of Jesus.

The Church has traditionally seen this gospel as part of the Epiphany cycle:  Jesus manifests himself to his disciples and begins his public ministry.  Let’s consider a slightly different manifestation this morning, completing our Christmas cycle, as it were.

You’ve all been to weddings—and I hope you’ve never run out of wine or other spiritual liquids.  Mary and Jesus are celebrating a wedding, probably a relative’s.  When we remember that Palestinian weddings frequently lasted a week, we can appreciate not only what a festival it was but how much wine they all must have drunk before it ran out.  Isn’t it wonderful that the incarnate Son of God, the Word made flesh, is there!  A wedding is such a beautiful, ordinary but marvelous part of human life—and Jesus is there with his mother.  Anything that’s fundamentally human like marriage is noble, and Jesus graces it with his presence.  Not only that, but I imagine he and his rough fisherman and farmer friends had a good time—probably did their share to help the wine disappear!

It’s yet more significant that Jesus does his 1st sign or miracle at a wedding, 1st reveals his divine glory to the public eye in the privileged context of family life.  His action specially blesses married love in all its goodness, shows his eagerness to help with the problems of married life, and reminds us of marriage’s sacramentality:  it is an image of God’s eternal love for his people.  “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” (Is 62:5).

A parenthesis is timely here:  It’s because God’s love for his people is eternal and marriage is a sacrament or sign of that love, that marriage is a till-death-do-us-part covenant and the Church can never recognize divorce.  Close parenthesis.

Our parish here is called Assumption.  So our Lady, the mother of Jesus, has special meaning for us.  She’s at the wedding, she brings the wine problem to Jesus’ attention, she sends the waiters to Jesus, she fades into the background.

In this scripture and in the related crucifixion scene, John presents Mary as an image of the Church as well as a disciple of Jesus.  Like Mary, the Church shares “the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted,” as Vatican II said (GS 1).  Like Mary, the Church always points to Jesus, saying, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).  Like Mary, the Church doesn’t always get clear answers, but she has faith in his concern, is ready for whatever he suggests or wherever he leads even if she’s unsure what that will be.  Like Mary, the Church seeks not herself but Jesus, keeps pointing to him for the salvation of others and the glorification of God in Jesus.

Mary’s personal role and Jesus’ dialog with her in the Cana story are a bit puzzling.  It’s enough to say that she notices a serious problem for her relatives or friends, and in some manner she brings this problem to Jesus and Jesus acts.  When we add the crucifixion scene of John 19, we see Mary as our mother, attentive also to our needs and bringing them to Jesus for us.  We can’t doubt that he’ll act for us, too.

May the mother of Jesus, our mother, watch over us and pray for us.