May the Eucharist we celebrate today help us to know the role of Mary as a mother, so that in all the activities of our lives we may always call on her for help.
Happy Sunday!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Isaiah 62, 1-5; 1 Cor 12, 4-11; John 2, 1-12: 2nd Sunday of Year C, 16th January, 2022)
The Gospel we have heard is very suggestive. It is a pleasant episode with double signification. On the one hand we see Jesus performing a miracle to make a wedding feast possible, and, on the other hand, a programmatic episode, which has a profound meaning.
In Cana of Galilee there is a wedding, to which the mother of Jesus was invited and, perhaps, through her Jesus was also invited with his disciples. During the banquet, Mary notices that there is shortage of wine and she says to Jesus: They have no wine. (Jesus response is rather surprising: What have I to do with you, O woman? It is not my time yet?" The mother then says to the servants: Do whatever he tells you. Jesus has the jars filled with water and the master of the banquet has the water drawn out. When they brought it to him, the water has become wine. The banquest master tastes it, then calls the groom and says to him: At first, everyone serves good wine and, when people are a little tipsy, the less good in the wine menu is served; you, on the other hand, have kept the good wine up to now. And the evangelist concludes: Thus Jesus began his miracles in Cana of Galilee, his glory manifested and his disciples believed in him. How are we to understand the expression: Jesus manifests his glory? On a superficial level, we can say that Jesus in this episode showed his power to work miracles, and his disciples believed in him as a thaumaturge. But the Gospel of John must be read on a deeper level. The fourth Gospel is called the spiritual Gospel because it expresses the profound meaning of miracles. In fact, John does not express them as miracles, but as signs. At Cana Jesus initiates his signs. They are signs that want to indicate something. The evangelist speaks to us of Jesus’ glory. What is it about? The first reading of today's Mass can give us a light, making us interpret this episode as a significant miracle for the covenant project desired by God. At Cana, therefore, it is not just a miracle done by Jesus to preserve a wedding couple from some embarrassments, but a miracle that manifests God’s intention and Jesus’ mission, In this episode the true bridegroom is Jesus, In fact, in the next chapter John the Baptist will designate him as the bridegroom, when he will say: Who possesses the Bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who is present and listens to him, rejoices at the voice of the bridegroom (John 3,29).
The first reading speaks of God's plan of covenant with his people: a beautiful plan, but which has always been opposed by the negative behavior of the people. In a certain sense, it can be said that in the whole history of salvation the wedding had already been prepared, it had to be celebrated, but it could never be realized, because there was always lack of wine. Which wine? It is not a question of material wine, but of what is most important of all: the wine of love. Only if this wine of love is available, and in abundance, can the marriage of the covenant be realized. The people of Israel were not prepared for this wedding. In the Bible, Jerusalem is presented as an abandoned bride, a devastated land. Instead of the covenant, here we have a situation of rupture with God, a situation of exile, caused by the repeated sins of the bride. However God does not renounce his original project and through the prophet Isaiah announces its full realization: No one will call you any more ‘Abandoned’, nor will your land be called ‘Devastated’ anymore, but you will be called ‘My satisfaction’ and your land ‘Married’, because the Lord will be pleased with you and your land will have a husband. It is clear that the bridegroom here is God himself, the prophet confirms it immediately afterwards, saying: As a young man marries a virgin, so will your creator marry you; as the bridegroom rejoices for the bride, so will your God rejoice over you. This is God's magnificent project. Even the prophet Jeremiah, after recalling the catastrophe, the exile of the Jewish people, announces that God will restore Jerusalem in his happiness as a beloved bride: In the cities of Judah and streets of Jerusalem, which are desolate, without men, without inhabitants and without animals, shouts of joy and shouts of joy will still be heard, as well as the voices of the bridegroom and that of the bride … (Jer, 33, 10-11). Jesus’ glory is that of being the husband of Jerusalem, carrying out the covenant between God and his people. In this sense, the episode at Cana is a programmatic episode, it manifests the true glory of Jesus: that of generous love, which makes the marriage between God and his people possible. In Cana, the disciples, who expect the liberation of Israel, can understand that Jesus is the bridegroom, the Messiah who comes from God and is present to make the marriage between God and his people possible, and to celebrate them. In this wedding, Maria plays an important role. It is she who, with maternal attention, realizes the needs of the people and intervenes with her son. Jesus replies with an apparently rude tone, because he himself wants to take the initiative: he makes his mother understand that he is no longer the child subjected to her, but the Messiah designated by the heavenly Father to carry out this decisive mission.
The second reading can also be related to the theme of the wedding: it is in fact the Spirit who distributes his gifts (charisms). Paul explains to the Christians of Corinth that there are diversity of charisms, but only one Spirit (who distributes the charisms). Then he makes a list of the many gifts of the Spirit, and concludes by saying: All these things have one and the same Spirit who operates them, distributing them to each one as he wishes. In relation to these gifts, one can also speak of intoxication of the Spirit. In fact, at Pentecost, the apostles, who received the Holy Spirit, seem drunk: people ask themselves what happened, because they show exceptional enthusiasm, they praise God with extraordinary joy (cf. Acts 2: 1-13). Peter then takes the floor and first of all denies that it is an intoxication due to wine: These men are not drunk as you suspect, it is being just nine hours in the morning. Then he explains that it is the Spirit who fills these people with joy, enthusiasm and spiritual ability. And, precisely, these gifts of the Spirit show that the new covenant is now fulfilled. With the passion and resurrection of Jesus, God fulfilled his plan of the covenant, and this is now manifested with the descent of the Holy Spirit and the variety of his gifts (cf. Acts 2, 14-36). Where does the good wine come from, which the master of the banquet talks about? John states that he does not know. And actually no one knew then. It would have been known only at the moment of Jesus’ passion. In fact, this good wine comes, precisely, from it, it comes from the Eucharist, which receives all its value from the passion. In the Last Supper Jesus takes the cup of wine and says: This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22, 20; Luke 1125). Then Cana announces the mystery of the passion, the resurrection of Jesus and Pentecost, the mystery of the new covenant, founded on the immense love that Jesus manifests in his passion, to the point of shedding all his blood for us. The Eucharist we receive takes us back to the environment of Cana, the environment of the spiritual wedding. We must welcome this gift with great joy, and enthusiasm, and recognize that the Eucharist has the habitual effect of communicating the gifts of the Holy Spirit to us. Of course, these are not spectacular gifts. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul tries hard to reduce an attitude of excessive enthusiasm on the part of the Christians of that city. He explains to them that there are so many gifts of the Spirit, and that not all of them are extraordinary. The Second Vatican Council also showed that there are charisms, ordinarily, very precious for the life and progress of the Church. They are true gifts of the Spirit, which serve to implement the new covenant in our life, while not presenting any miraculous aspect. They are, however, not less precious because of this. Each has a particular manifestation of the Spirit, has gifts of the Spirit which serve to unite the recipient with the Lord for the good of the brothers. We must be aware that we are living in the new covenant. founded on Jesus’ initiative, full of love. Jesus has come to the point of giving his life to make this covenant possible. The new covenant is the source of joy, peace and, above all, effective love. We must therefore, learn to always progress in this love, in order to take full advantage of the gifts of the Spirit. +John I. Okoye.
(graphics by Chukwubike)
