Homily for the Second Sunday of the Year - 01-17-10

A Reading from the holy Gospel according to John

" On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother
of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his
disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, «They
have no wine.» And Jesus said to her, «O woman, what have you to do with
me? My hour has not yet come.» His mother said to the servants, «Do
whatever he tells you.» Now six stone jars were standing there, for the
Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
Jesus said to them, «Fill the jars with water.» And they filled them up
to the brim. He said to them, «Now draw some out, and take it to the
steward of the feast.» So they took it. When the steward of the feast
tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from
(though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the
feast called the bridegroom and said to him, «Every man serves the good
wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you
have kept the good wine until now.»

" This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and
manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him. After this he
went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his
disciples; and there they stayed for a few days. "

Homily:

 The episode in the life of Jesus in which he attended the wedding in the
village of Cana is well-known. Who hasn't heard of the miracle of the
water changed into wine? Moreover, as Saint John said, it was "the first
of his signs." (Jn. 2:11) But what does this - "the first of his signs"
- mean? Was it just a small miracle, done only to see if it would work?
A first attempt, not too spectacular, in case it would fail? Not at all!
Far from it! To think that one of Jesus' miracles could fail would be,
for the Lord, the greatest of insults!

No, Jesus cannot fail when performing a miracle.

 One can see from the very start that Jesus will not realize this first
miracle entirely on his own: Mary, his Mother, intervenes. Of course,
it is the divine Power of Jesus the Son of God that will produce the
miracle and change water into wine. But this divine Power wants to act
in response to prayer: Mary believes that her Son is able to perform a
miracle and so she asks him to do so, simply by telling him that the
wedding guests did not have any more wine. Thereafter, each time Jesus
performs a miracle, the faith and prayer of man will have first invited
the Power of God to manifest itself through an exemption from the laws of
nature - that is, through a miracle.

Something that has been much cavilled at is the appelation given by Jesus
to Mary: "Woman..." Despite all the scriptural interpretations of the
word "Woman", one absolutely must take into account the fact that Mary
holds a privileged place, one that is unique, in the History of
Salvation. In the light of faith, Mary, who is first the model of the
Church, is also, in a certain sense, the entire accomplishment and the
fullness of the Body of Christ: as Saint Louis-Mary Grignon of Montfort
clearly says, if all of the members of the Mystical Body of Christ live
in Christ, with Him, by Him and for Him, then they also live in Mary,
with Her, by Her and for Her. Also, as the Church is the mystical Bride
of Christ, Mary, as the Church, is also the Bride of Christ, and it is in
this sense that Jesus, at the wedding of Cana, refers to Mary as "Woman"
rather than "Mother". Moreover, since husband and wife are one, it is
truly in this way that Jesus intends to perform his first miracle: with
Mary, his Mother, and not without her!

 In order for Jesus to perform his first miracle, Mary asked her Son to act
and she reiterated to him all her faith. But what can Mary do alone?
Alone, Mary is but a believer among believers, although she is the first
among them. But Mary in union with the rest of the faithful becomes, in
a way, the entire Body of Christ, and goes from being the Mother to
becoming the Spouse of Christ, in order to work with her Son, to
collaborate, through her faith, in the Work of God. It is for this
reason that Mary needs our aid. Thus, she says to the servants: "Do
whatever he tells you." And the servants associated themselves to the
faith of Mary through their obedience to the commands of Christ. Doesn't
obedience produce miracles?

What strikes the steward of the feast concerning the wine that is
presented to him now, towards the end of the meal, is its quality: he
finds it better than all the other wine that had been served until then!
Truly, the steward of the feast is surprised by this departure from
custom: "Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk
freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now."
Jesus clearly did not fail the first time he acted as a miracle-worker!
The Lord foresaw everything and it was necessary for his first miracle to
invite men to a change of life and to conversion: the tradition of men
is not the Tradition of God!

 This is the first miracle! This is a seed of faith in the soul of the
disciples of the Lord! Soon, the Holy Spirit will descend upon the
Apostles and disciples. Mary will be there too, in the Cenacle, on that
day of the first Pentecost! Mary will have prayed with them in order
that the Power of the Almighty, who had already come upon her on the day
of the Annunciation, might pour itself upon the disciples of her Son and
allow them to perform their own first miracles. Truly, the disciples of
the Lord believed in him and came to the aid of Mary so that, by Her and
with Her, the Church would be born and see the light of day, in order
that it might ceaselessly grow until the fullness of time!

Mary needs each one of us to collaborate in the Work of her Son: let us
not hesitate to deeply believe and to pray with perseverance in order for
the Kingdom of God to come and for the Glory of the Lord to be poured
forth throughout the entire the Universe!

Canon Dr. Daniel Meynen

http://meynen.homily-service.net/

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