2nd. Sunday of Year 2022 (C)
(Isaiah 62:1-5; 1st. Corinthians 12: 4-11; St. John’s
Gospel 2:1-11)
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You will all, surely, remember one or
several of the numerous passages in the Gospels where we read that Jesus chose
to ‘take with Him Peter, James, and John the brother of James’ apart from the other
Apostles. Jesus did that because Peter would
ultimately become the leader of the Church Jesus would leave behind to spread
-- in His name -- His saving teaching and to offer His sacramental grace to the
whole of mankind; and James would be the first of the Apostles to suffer
martyrdom for the name of Jesus, under the Roman-appointee, King Herod Antipas.
But what about John, the young boy in the midst of those two mature and pre-destined men? Perhaps today we may be allowed to try to seek some appreciation and understanding of the reason for and the purpose of Jesus’ choice of John.
Mature men are – by definition -- already formed in both their manhood and their personality to a large measure, though they can subsequently become fully committed and truly loving disciples. John, however, was not fully mature: he was still receptive to and impressionable under personal influences and, obviously, much more so when in close proximity with Jesus’ divinely human Personality. St. John’s Gospel might therefore offer us, quite uniquely, an intimacy of access -- John’s very own -- to Jesus that could encourage us to forget ourselves and, intuiting something of Jesus’ Personality, whole-heartedly love His very Self, along with John. And today’s Gospel reading is an excellent example of John’s opening-up-of-Jesus for us in that way.
A wedding was taking place in Cana to which Mary had been personally invited as were, it would seem, Jesus and His new disciples being members of the local community. During the course of the rather long and somewhat indeterminable celebration we are told that:
Obviously, Mary was not just
‘concerned’ about the lack of wine; she was expecting, or at least hoping, that
Jesus might be able to do something about it. Jesus, on the other hand, was surprised at His
mother’s concern; indeed, being somewhat puzzled at her attempt to involve Him
in the matter He said to her:
Mary, however, was not to be put off:
His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever He tells you.”
That surely was moral pressure! For Mary – very well known to all as Jesus’ mother – publicly, even though you might say, in a confidential way, advises the servants (who will most certainly talk!) to be ready to do whatever Jesus might tell them.
Jesus had not intended to tell them to do anything, but now those servants were looking to Him, waiting for Him, to say something, to do something!!
So, here we are now, ourselves being made aware of an intimately personal dilemma Jesus was experiencing!
When, as a very young man, close to the
officially recognized beginning of male adulthood, and present at an ‘obligatory
for Joseph at least’ feast in Jerusalem, Jesus had become aware of a man’s
responsibility before the Law with regard to its obligations and duties. Fascinated, Jesus had remained behind in
Jerusalem in the Temple listening to and talking with the teachers while the
Nazareth caravan had left for home, leaving Him, as it were, lost to Mary and
Joseph. He, however, confessing His heavenly Father had refused to
apologize for what Mary thought had been a wrong done to Joseph and herself.
Now, many years later, after having been confessed before John the Baptist by the voice of His Father from heaven, and having prepared for immediate entry upon His public ministry by vanquishing the Devil in his desert lair, that bond of supremely cherished love and sovereign obedience between Jesus and His heavenly Father manifested all those years ago, was never at any risk of now being made contingent upon, or adapted to conform with, merely human standards or expectations, not even those of His mother Mary.
We should, therefore, most humbly attention to and try learn from every single word of Jesus, even the very least; indeed, we must also, at times, notice and try to appreciate His Gospel silences which could have been occasions of His, perhaps most intimate, Filial prayer.
Jesus was not concerned about the couple’s shortage of wine, that is, He had no intention whatsoever of using powers given Him by His Father for anything but His Father’s purposes, ‘Woman how does your concern affect Me?’
However, although Jesus was not much embarrassed by Mary’s concern as such, He was nevertheless puzzled by her subsequent actions:
His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever He tells you.”
How could she, preaching obedience to the servants ‘Do whatever He tells you’, herself be so insistent about what she wanted Him to do? She had never behaved in this way before, and that, as I said, was puzzling for Jesus.
John tells us nothing, and that very nothingness is one of those silences of Jesus I just mentioned that we should carefully attend to, for when Jesus was puzzled, He would turn to but One, His Father.
Jesus was always -- literally always -- and most intently, aware of and responsive to His Father’s will, And just as all those years ago -- although in no way apologizing for having remained behind in Jerusalem -- He had nevertheless returned home with Mary and Joseph and, through all the intervening years been obedient to them. So now, Jesus learned again from His Father that, by embracing His mother Mary’s concern for the young couple and their guests, He, Jesus, was being offered the opportunity to use, most appropriately, divine power for the truly divine purpose of evoking the ultimate wedding feast of all in heaven by foreshadowing His Father’s infinite goodness.
The heavenly Father never forgot Mary’s Calvary-like self-sacrifice at the Annunciation: ‘Be it done unto me according to Your will.’ Here Mary’s concerns for the couple were merely incidental to the truly reward and gift the Father was about to bestow on Mary. The Father wanted to have His Son-made-Man -- setting out on His Messianic work for which He, the Father, had sent and blessed Him -- to begin that mission with His mother’s blessing also. Therefore, He made Mary’s concern the apparent cause of the blessing He planned: she, through such concern, would apparently lead her Son to work His first miracle as Messiah, and that wonderful privilege would serve most fittingly as her blessing upon her Son’s subsequent life’s work.
Jesus, God made Man in Mary’s human flesh and blood, would thus begin His earthly mission for which He had been ‘sent’ by His heavenly Father, with a double blessing, divine and human: the Spirit given Him by His heavenly Father, and Mary’s blessing leading Him to foreshadow the glorious fulfilment and joy of the wedding feast of heaven through the aspirations, anxieties, and final gratitude of two young friends of Mary at the success of their wedding celebration.
Jesus’ miracle would be totally divine, even symbolically, for there would be more wine, better wine, than Mary could ever have conceived of for the newly-wed’s; and it would be a miracle rejoicing Jesus’ most Sacred Heart to the utmost: giving Him truly sublime delight in foreshadowing His Father’s glorious generosity at the divine and heavenly banquet of the family of God, gathered together by the Spirit in the name of Jesus at the table, and before the Person, of the Father of all.
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty 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 headwaiter.” So, they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter 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!
Dear People of God, today you have not been taught any particular doctrine of Catholic divinity (as Pope Benedict did so beautifully) nor exhorted to any particular Catholic moral attitude or practice (as Pope Francis does so diligently) because ultimately, whatever we think, whatever we profess or do, will only bear fruit to the extent in which it is penetrated by our personal and humble experience of and response to Jesus Himself as revealed to us by His own Divine Words in the Scriptures and opened-up for us by His own Most Holy Spirit.
I fear at times that too many disciples of Jesus are too desirous to know facts, to have information, to be able to answer many questions ABOUT JESUS; whereas what is supremely necessary and uniquely fulfilling is personal knowledge of, personal love for, personal fullness of satisfaction with, personal commitment to, JESUS alone. Take therefore to heart these most beautiful words of His:
I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father
Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have come to believe that I
came from God.
(John 16: 26-27)
