Homily for Sunday Ordinary 2 C

The Fourth gospel reveals Jesus’ glory through a series of seven signs. It stands to reason that Jesus’s first public “sign” takes place at a wedding feast, for Jesus himself is the marriage of divinity and humanity. (Icon by Greta Leśko)

I have Mass on Sunday, January 19
at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am
at St. Andrew @ 5:00 pm

St. Isidore 7:30 am will be live-streamed. https://stisidore.church/worship-online/

frjoedailey@gmail.com

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. 
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. 
When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you." 
Now, there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told them, "Fill the jars with water." So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, "Draw some out now and take it to the head waiter." So they took it. 
And when the head waiter tasted the water that had become wine without knowing where it came from, although the servers who had drawn the water knew, the head waiter called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one. But you have kept the good wine until now." 
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee, and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him. 
The Gospel of the Lord. 

Marriage symbolizes the fullness of human life. All of our hopes and dreams for the future are fulfilled. 
When Israel thought of their relationship to God, they imagined themselves as the bride and God as the bridegroom. We hear this language from Isaiah, "You shall be called my delight." As the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you. 
The fourth Gospel reveals Jesus' glory through a series of seven signs. It stands to reason that Jesus' first public sign takes place at a wedding feast, for Jesus himself is the marriage of divinity and humanity. 
In today's passage, Jesus said to his mother, "My hour has not yet come." In John's Gospel, "our" is code for the Paschal Mystery, the time of self-giving love from the cross. On the cross, Jesus drinks poor tasting wine not like the good wine of Cana, just before pouring out water and blood as spirit on the cross. The first sign then is already pointing to the seventh sign, the hour of the cross. 
In the course of the wedding celebration, the wine ran short. Noticing the difficulty, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." In the fourth Gospel, the mother of Jesus is not named. We know her name, Mary, but from the other Gospels. 
The mother of Jesus speaks for Israel. Something is lacking. Life is flat. We're getting by, but joy and vitality are missing. 
John Shea points out that the wedding symbolizes how God and people are united in love to co-create spiritual life. The mother of Jesus is the spokesperson for the people's side of this divine human relationship. She is humanity, aware of its lack, conscious that it cannot live to the fullest without continual communion with God. She speaks to Jesus, the God's side of the divine human relationship, the words of all human insufficiency. So she speaks to Jesus, the God's side of the divine human relationship, the words of all human insufficiency, "They have no wine." 
Humans have lost their union with God and, by implication, their communion with one another. Without this spiritual union, the wedding of life cannot continue. Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come. This is hardly the way we would address our mothers. But Jesus is not being disrespectful. Mary is the new Eve, the mother of all, the representative of the human race with whom God is seeking union. 
The mother of Jesus appears only one other time in the Gospel of John, standing at the foot of the cross with the beloved disciple. Jesus addresses her, "Woman, behold your son," and to the beloved disciple, "Son, behold your mother." 
When Jesus says to his mother, "My hour has not yet come," he is in effect saying, "I'm not sure I'm the one you're looking for, because I've not yet learned to give my life away in love." It is in fact the pouring out of our love, giving our lives away, that restores this missing spirit. 
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding 20 to 30 gallons. There are only six jars. Seven is the complete number. Notice that Jesus doesn't just produce the wine. They fill the jars with water, and then the water becomes wine, a natural process that occurs all the time. Rainwater gives rise to grapes, which give rise to wine. The water isn't cleared out. Jesus uses what we bring. 
The contemporary American spiritual writer Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, writes, "All marriages take place at Cana, for in all marriages the necessary raw material of life, water, is changed into a sparkling, tingling, inspiring element of the soul, wine." Jesus demonstrates that in the kingdom of God, marriage is one of the prime settings in which the transformation from plain living to new vision can take place. 
It is where the water becomes wine. It is where our raw and untested lives take on new complexity and richness through sharing and struggle. It is where, like grape juice turning to wine, our separateness is broken down, and we discover the mystery of a shared life. 
Remember the story of the feeding of the 5,000 in the wilderness? Jesus is teaching a large crowd when the disciples suggest that Jesus send the crowd away to "go and buy food." Jesus says to them, "You give them something to eat." What Jesus is really suggesting is, "Give them yourselves." 
We don't have enough. What have you got? They checked. Five loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people? "Bring me what you have." They gave it to Jesus. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them back to them. And there was enough, more than enough. There was even some left over. 
Jesus tells the servant, "Draw some out and take it to the head waiter." When the head waiter tastes the water now transformed into wine, he remarks on its extraordinary quality, not to mention superabundance, 130 to 180 gallons. 
Jesus is going to enter into the part of human life where God is not present and bring life to that emptiness. When God and humanity are married, the connections between human beings intensify and deepen. 
At Cana, Christ's glory is revealed, the true bridegroom who came that we may have life and have it abundantly. We are invited to live now within the circle of God's love, loving one another with the same love that loves us.