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5 Takeaways from This Sunday’s Gospel, the Wedding Feast at Cana…

5 Takeaways from This Sunday’s Gospel, the Wedding Feast at Cana…

We join Jesus and Mary at the Wedding Feast of Cana on the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C. Here are five takeaways from This Sunday columns at this site and The Extraordinary Story podcast.

First: This isn’t just a story about turning water into wine for the sake of a wedding.

The key line comes at the end of the story: “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.”

It is significant that the great public revelation about who Jesus is starts with Mary. The Blessed Mother is the center of the scene. She initiates his miracle with four words to him: “They have no wine.” Christ’s response — “My hour has not yet come” — is a reference to the fact, seemingly well known to both mother and son, that to reveal his glory will lead to “his hour” — his death.

Mary’s reply is to tell the servants five words — “Do whatever he tells you” — which spiritual writers say is the counsel she gives to all at all times. Here is true femininity. She is not a passive voiceless observer — she uses the force of her personality to call her son to action and the servants along with him, not by being demanding but by pointing them to others.

Jesus, of course, responds by working a miracle that is guaranteed to be talked about — so much so that “turning water into wine” is a phrase used to this day by people who are not churchgoers.

And, as with the Epiphany and the Baptism, trouble follows joy. Jesus must now begin the ministry that he will be killed for. At each stage, the story is the same: A glorious beginning, followed by trouble. But we know how the story ultimately ends, in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, and the assumption and coronation of his mother.

We can be confident, if we follow Jesus, that the decision will bring trouble into our life — and grace, and joy, and new life in Christ, starting now, and lasting forever, we hope, in heaven.

Second: But let’s look at the work of the servants, the “lay people” in the reading.

“Do whatever he tells you,” Mary says, and they do. The servants are given the most menial tasks in the whole New Testament to accomplish — filling six stone jars with water. And they fulfill their task fully, filling the water jars “to the brim” and delivering them to Jesus.

We lay people are like them. We aren’t the ones who transform people; we are the ones who bring people to Jesus in the sacraments so he can transform them there. We baptize our kids, get our lives in order, and get to church. We also tidy the church, schedule the servers and lectors, and invite our neighbors. It isn’t glorious work; it’s hard work. But if we do it with Christ it’s a joy and if we do it “to the brim,” we participate in his glory.

This is the meaning of the Second Reading, where we are told some of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives. To some, the Holy Spirit gives the gift of “the expression of wisdom” or “the expression of knowledge.” These are teachers, scholars, and religious sisters. Some are given “gifts of healing,” or “mighty deeds.” These are wonder-workers and spiritual heroes. If those people decide not to do those things, woe to them and woe to us.

Too often, we don’t do our own task, though. Mary says “Do whatever he tells you,” but instead we tell him what we want to do.

Instead of spreading Christ’s kingdom person-to-person among our neighbors, we want to say nothing, or broadcast our opinions online to strangers. Instead of getting in touch with our family members and neighbors with the Gospel, we would rather get in touch with ourselves through self-improvement and self-actualization. Instead of loving God by obeying his commandments, we would rather love God by having loving feelings, or by adopting a favorite devotion or spirituality that makes us feel noble and holy.

But, third, if we step up and do as he tells us, we begin a new relationship that is shocking and beautiful.

We get a remarkable image of what heaven looks like in the First Reading from Isaiah, and how it starts right now.

Isaiah speaks about heaven in a vigorous, defiant way. God’s Chosen People, were seen in the time of Isaiah the way many of us might see the Church today: A once glorious reality that has grown compromised and mediocre. Isaiah’s audience knew the Jewish nation was once glorious. It was called out of pagan darkness in Abraham, then rose to greatness at Pharoah’s side in Joseph and broke free from Pharoah’s grasp through Moses. Their nation conquered through David and the glorious Temple and famous wisdom of Solomon drew admirers from far and wide.

But by Isaiah’s time, the Jewish nation is a shadow of its former self. Its greatness was destroyed by marauders outside and moral cowardice and dissension within. The once great nation was divided and driven into exile. But Isaiah’s message was that this was not the end: It would all be made right by a Messiah who would restore power and glory.

“For Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch,” Isaiah says. “Nations shall behold your vindication and all kings your glory.”

He says the Chosen People will become a royal people, not by birthright but by marriage — and not a royal marriage, but a divine one!

“No more shall people call you ‘Forsaken,’ or your land ‘Desolate,’ but you shall be called ‘My Delight,’ and your land ‘Espoused.’ For the Lord delights in you and makes your land his spouse. 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.”

This vision of God’s relation with his people is like God’s interior relation with himself: God is love because Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in love; they delight in each other, live for each other, act for each other. For us, true love is the same. True love is when the ego drops away and we are nothing but gift to each other. True love forgets its own prerogatives and exists to delight in the other in mutual service and enjoyment. That is how God loves us.

Fourth: In other words, our relationship with God is to be Espoused — to be bride to the Bridegroom.

We see Jesus make himself the bridegroom of his people, and of us, starting in Cana.

The Gospel tells us, “The headwaiter called the bridegroom” and praised him for the wine. But we know who the real bridegroom is who provided the wine. Mark, the earliest Gospel, told us that Jesus is the divine bridegroom. St. Paul said the same thing, pointing out that we must be washed to meet him, much as brides were ceremonially washed, and that Jesus nourishes us as his own flesh.

This simple tale of Cana has all of those hallmarks: It starts with stone water jars that are there for ceremonial washing — and he turns that water to wine. At the Last Supper, when his “hour” has arrived at last, the same kind of water will be on hand, and he will bathe his disciples’ feet with it before he gives himself to them in the Eucharist and takes their sins onto himself in the Agony in the Garden.

Here, he turns water to wine. There, he will turn wine into his blood. Here, he begins the countdown to his hour. There, his hour will toll and he will die for our sins. Here, changing water to wine shows his generosity as provides way more than is needed — 180 gallons of wine. There, changing wine to blood will show his generosity even more, instituting the priesthood to provide his body, blood, soul and divinity to us all for all time.

In Cana, he is the true bridegroom who deserves the credit someone else gets for the outpouring of wine; today, he is the true bridegroom who deserves credit for the outpouring of his Eucharistic blood that priests get credit for. In Cana, the waters of purification become the wine of celebration, today, the wine of celebration will become the Eucharist of purification.

At the Last Supper, wine that is the work of human hands becomes his blood, such that today, the work of human hands, our work, becomes the work of his body.

So, fifth: We have everything we need to change.

The bread and wine Jesus offers us at Mass is his body and blood; it is his proposal to us. He wants to be espoused to his people, he wants to be bridegroom to his Church, the bride. He wants to give himself to us in communion and for us to give ourselves to him in our daily lives.

Before the Gospel this Sunday, the liturgy announces, “God has called us through the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

He means it for real. He is delighted by us and hopes that we will accept Mary’s invitation to “Do whatever he tells you,” and delight in him.

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