THE SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - C

THE SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – C (Is 62:1-5; 1 Cor 12:4-11; John 2:1-11) Theme: We are Called to Fill the World with the Wine of Joy, Hope and Salvation Reflection: Participation in the first sign of Jesus - First sign of Jesus’ manifestation: We are in the second Sunday of the Ordinary Time of the Year C. Usual readings for the Liturgical Year C are from the Gospel of Luke. But today, we have the gospel passage from John. It is not without motive and significance. The Church invites us through this particular message to embrace the public life of Jesus and to enter into his manifestation. After the Baptism, with which Jesus has started his public ministry, Jesus set out to reveal the love of God for the humanity through his words and deeds. The first sign of this revelation, according to John, happens in the wedding celebration of Cana. The door of his divine manifestation takes place with the change of water into wine. John, unlike other evangelists, does not call it as a miracle but as a sign: sign indicates a profound reality in the external gestures. Changing the water into wine is the external gesture that indicates that God is about to realize his plan of love for man in and through Jesus, his Son. The life of man will be transformed into the wine of joy, hope and salvation. - God’s design of love is eternal: It is not only in Jesus that God reveals his love for man. Whole through the time and history God manifests his desire to be with man. From the first act of creation, in which God has created a companion for himself in his same “image and likeness”, God wills to stay with man. He wants marry the humanity. This is revealed in the continuous manner right through the centuries. Through the judges, kings and finally through the prophets God expressed his desire of love for his creature, for man and for the entire world. His desire has reached its ultimate fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh. - Wedding of Cana is the image of God’s love: Although we have been reading and meditating often this gospel passage, today we will try to give it a spiritual painting, before we enter deeply into exegetical reflection. The mother of Jesus is there in the marriage and Jesus along with his disciples is invited for the wedding. The wine is over. Mother tells to the son that they have no wine. Jesus asks the servants to fill the jars with the water. He commands them to take it and to give it to the one who leads the wedding. The guide is surprised to see the better and tasty wine and expresses it with the owner of the marriage, bridegroom. The words are important: usually, the better wine is served first and when all have drunk to the full, the less quality wine will be placed but you have left the good and better wine until the end. - Jesus is the best wine that God serves to the world: The simple passage leads us to the deeper meaning. God was serving the wine to the world. The wine is the symbol of joy, hope and salvation. God’s wine appeared in the form of the men He has chosen and sent, that is, the forefathers, the judges, the kings and the prophets. God served this wine right through the first and old alliance with his people. This wine is over. There is no wine any more. The people are in the face of sadness, desperation and perdition. God, who is faithful in his promises, comes out this time to give to the world, the most precious, ever tasteful and the best wine. The best wine that is offered to the world is Jesus Christ, His Eternal Son. It is in him, the New Wine and New Covenant, that God provides to the world the possibility of joy and salvation. Jesus reveals God’s love to the world and brings back/ buys back the prodigal bride to God by the donation of his life in the passion and through the death on the cross. This is His Hour that Jesus talks about. The hour of realizing the wedding of love between God and humanity. The hour has not come at the wedding of Cana but at the wedding of the cross. Wedding of Cana, thus, is the first sign which indicates that the True wine of love will be poured out for the joy and salvation of God’s bride, the humanity. The first sign leads to the final sign, the meeting of love between God and man in the wedding of the Cross. The Hour has come, the marriage has taken place and the mission accomplished. Jesus stands out in the world as the New and Eternal Wine that God gives for the salvation of the world. Readings: The role of Mary to stand between the Old and New Covenant - Mary in the context of God’s Wedding with the humanity: The wedding in the scriptures stands to reveal God’s love towards his people. It was already expressed in the different ways through the prophets, Hosiah (2:21-22) and Isaiah (62:1-5 – today’s first reading). His mother, He and his disciples are invited for the wedding. Mother, in the wedding the God prepares, is the knot between the Old and New Testaments. She is the connection between the two. She belongs to both the testaments: she symbolizes the end of the old and the beginning of the new. The New Testament will take place with Jesus. She is only a knot or connection because she does not belong to the Old because her life and existence is in the new. This does not mean that she belongs to the New because the New is in the Hour of Jesus. Yet she belongs to both of them: she brings down what is old and introduces it to the new. She makes possible the passage between the two. The old is to be completed in the new and the new has to find its basement and foundation in the old. Therefore, the presence of Mary in the wedding feast is important. - They have no wine: There is a moment where the wine gets over. Wine is the precious and significant thing in the wedding feast. When it is not sufficient or gets over, the feast will have a shameful ending. The first one to notice this is the Mother. She notices that the wine of the Old Testament is over. The law and the prophets have reached to the end of their service. The wine is over. The world has no wine. Mother brings the situation to her Son. The old covenant has become empty. Mother leads it to the confrontation with the new. The jars of purification now appear empty. The time of purification with the water is over. The jars of the Old Testament have served until now the humanity. The observation of the old law is exhausted. It has finally finished its term and its time and stood empty before the new. With the intervention of the Mother the interaction between the Old and the New has taken place. Now there are no more jars of water. They emptied themselves to become the jars of New Wine, Jesus. - Water is transformed into wine: With the prayerful and caretaking request of the Mother, the Son fulfills what is required for the time being, in the symbolic way: takes the water and makes it into wine. The ultimate transformation and the final change of the water into wine will take place when His Hour Comes. For now “his hour has not yet come”. Yet Jesus does what is needed. He does it. He starts it. He gives the beginning for his manifestation. The first sign will finally realized in the last sign: the Cana will lead to the Calvary. He shows that he is moving towards his hour by working the first sign. By working this way, Jesus neither rejects his mother nor anticipates his hour, as many think. He, in fact, recognizes the role of his mother who places the need of the Old Testament before him. He then realizes his mission of filling the Old with the advent of the New. No more water in the jars. They are to be filled with the wine. Not with any quality of wine. But with the best quality of wine. He fills the jars with himself – with his presence and total donation of the self. He himself becomes the Wine that God provides to the world. Water is transformed into the Wine: Jesus embraces and takes into himself all that is old – water, and transformed it into the new creation: all become persons in Christ. - The better wine is revealed and recognized: God’s revelation is in various modes, often in the little and small ways. He prefers to manifest his will to and through the last and least ones of the world and those who have no importance and recognition. The various kings and prophets of the Old Testament are evident for this. God reveals himself to the small and humble. The ultimate revelation His Son, Jesus, also has the same procedure. When Jesus is born, the first message is to the least of the village, to the shepherds. He makes himself known to the strangers and to the outside the chosen race, to the Magi which happens in the Epiphany. He reveals himself to the ordinary people in the time of His Baptism in the river Jordan. Even today, the first sign he completes, it was the great ones to whom he has revealed it. Jesus prefers to reveal it, first of all, to the servants of the feast: it is before him that Jesus works this transformation. It is from the poor and humble, who embrace the signs in faith, that the manifestation extends to the rest. Here, the servants take the “water changed into wine” to the head of the banquet. Finally, the sign is recognized and accepted by the owner of the wedding. Jesus wishes to manifest himself to the simple and poor because they are ready to listen to him and accept him. Once again Jesus reveals this truth by the first public sign he works. Now not only the servants but all know that “there is precious and better wine” amidst them. Conclusion: Our turn to change the water of man’s routine life into the wine of joyful celebration - Modern man – the conqueror of the world: It is time for us to situate ourselves in the context of the world. What is world? It is its beings: the human beings. Modern man is running and running ahead. With the technological and scientific development man is “growing” to the heights. It is true, that he is growing in knowledge and mechanism of life. He is moving forward in the conquest of many things. His life seems to be well secured. He is in the possession of comfort and luxury. His growth in the computer and his research into the science makes him busy and occupied: above all, preoccupied. He plans his time well. He systematically organizes his life. He works hard, often over time, so that he can settle in life. He was an ordinary worker. He became a master with the committed work. Now he tries to become god himself. He moves ahead towards controlling everything of the world. He wants to conquer the world and stand over it. In fact, he has the knowledge and capacity to do it. He is indeed towards the achievement of his desire: he becomes the conqueror of the world. - Yet he lacks wine – he has no wine: what is the result of man’s growing as the victor and controller of the world? He becomes a Robot. All his trust is in the machines. There is growth of the pride and selfishness on the other side. He desires to grow. If there is something hindering he does not mind to eradicate and uproot it. Often, the hindrance may appear in the form of the family. For his personal and individual growth, he keeps himself away from all these bonds and relationships. He creates his own personal world and feels himself as the master, most of the times, as god of it. Well. He has the freedom, knowledge and capacity to do it. But there is one thing lacking, Jesus reminds it: “If a man wins the whole world and loses his soul, what is the advantage”. In growing as a working machine, man forgets that he has a heart and soul: he forgets his belongingness and his responsibility as the integral being. Being content with what he is and what he has, often he puts up pretense of being happy. Being satisfied with his individual and personal growth, often he masks himself with the artificial smile on the face. He tends to cover up his stress, his worry, his inability and finally his need of the other. He acts as self-content. What happens in reality is this: he becomes an empty jar. He has no wine: the joy disappears, hope is being lost and the doors of salvation are closed. - We need to serve wine to him: The world has no wine. Mary told Jesus in the wedding of Cana. Now Jesus tells us the same. He invites us and sends us: “You are my disciples and I have filled you with the wine of my life; the world around you has no wine; the life of man has become an empty jar; there was only a water before, water of routine and distressed life; even that water is over; the life is reaching its ruin; and you fill it with the wine of joy, hope and salvation.” This is our Christian vocation. This is the task of our faith. We are filled with joy of the Lord by our participation in the act of faith. We are offered and nourished with the Word and with the Eucharist. Jesus changes our life of water into the life of wine. In fact, we are the witnesses to the beautiful and wonderful transformation. Now it is our turn to work the same miracle. We need to serve the wine to the modern man. We need to provide the moments of joy, hope and life to the world. We need to open the doors of new life – transformed life in Christ – so that the whole world participates in the joy of the wedding celebration that God works in Christ and through our faithful testimony of life. We are the bride of God’s love and we need to be the mediators of the wedding between God and the world as Jesus was. Our “hour” of testimony has arrived: let us go and accomplish the task. It is the only way for participating fully in the life of Christ. Let us be always mindful of our Christian witness: we are called to fill the Jar of the World with the Wine of Christ.