SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

SUNDAY, JANUARY 16, 2022

SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

First Reading: ISAIAH 62:1-5

Second Reading: 1 CORINTHIANS 12:4-11

Gospel: JOHN 2:1-11

The wedding at Cana

Years ago, when Johnny Carson was the host of the ‘Tonight Show,’ he interviewed an eight-year-old boy. The boy was asked to appear because he had rescued two friends in a coalmine outside his hometown in West Virginia. As Johnny questioned the boy, it became clear to him and the audience that the boy was a Christian. So, Johnny asked him if he attended Sunday school. The boy said yes. Johnny inquired, “What are you learning in Sunday school?” The boy responded, “Last week, our lesson was about when Jesus went to a wedding and turned water into wine.” The audience roared, but Johnny tried to keep a straight face. Then he asked, “And what did you learn from that story?” The boy squirmed in his chair. He was not prepared for that question.  But then he lifted up his face and said, “If you’re going to have a wedding, make sure you invite Jesus!”

At the wedding of Cana, the joy was threatened by a shortage of wine. In the East, shortage of wine at a wedding banquet was not only a social embarrassment and loss of honor for the bridegroom, it was an omen, that joy will be lacking in the marriage and that there was little chance of the marriage reaching its full potential. To prevent this catastrophe, Mary approaches Jesus and says to Him, “they have no wine.” And Jesus responds, “woman, what is that to you or me?” Sounds harsh, right? But this is an oriental way of speaking which can have different nuances. Jesus was essentially saying to Mary, ‘how does this situation concern us?’ If you go to a wedding and you are only a guest, if they run out of wine, how is it your business? Fixing it is not your problem but the job of the bridegroom.

Jesus said to Mary, “my hour has not yet come.” In the Gospels, his hour refers to His passion and death. So, how did He move from the problem of no wine to the hour of His passion and death? According to the prophet Isaiah, when the age of salvation comes, there will be a feast of fine wine. The age of the messiah will be characterized by an abundance of wine. So, when Mary asked Jesus to make wine available, and knowing well, who Jesus is, Jesus understood in her request, an implicit demand to manifest his messianic identity and start work.

And so, although His time has not come, as an obedient son who will not say no to His mother, He fixed the problem by turning water into wine – Six stone water jars. Each can hold twenty of thirty gallons. That will amount about between 120 gallons and 180 or up to 700 litters of wine. That is a lot of wine, an abundance of wine. In doing this, Jesus revealed His identity and His glory.

The bridegroom of this wedding is unnamed. There is a reason for that. John wants us to see how by providing wine, Jesus takes the role of the bridegroom, and He does that at the intervention of Mary His mother. The sign of turning water into wine points to Jesus not only as the Messiah but as the bridegroom. Who is the bridegroom in the first reading today from Isaiah? God Himself. Throughout the Old Testament, it is God Himself who is the bridegroom, who despite the infidelity of His bride Israel, continues to seek her out with merciful love. He is the bridegroom who will provide the feast and inaugurate the age of salvation. So, the miracle of Cana is a revelation, both of Jesus’ messianic and divine identity.

The Fathers of the Church also saw in this sign, in which the best wine was presented towards the end of the celebration and its abundance, a prefiguration of the crowning of the history of salvation. In the beginning, God sent the patriarchs and prophets, but in the fullness of time, He sent His own son, whose message and grace far exceeds those of the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets. Some also saw it as a symbol of the joy of the eternal life that God will give those who follow Jesus and persevere till the end. 

Finally, I want to reflect on Mary’s role in this miracle and why it matters. Jesus called her “woman.” Why is that? Where else did Jesus, call Mary woman? – at Calvary. There is a parallel between Cana and Calvary. Cana is at the beginning of Our Lord’s public ministry and Calvary is at the end of His ministry. At Cana and Calvary Mary was actively present. Her intercession was instrumental to Jesus revealing his messianic and divine identity at Cana. At Calvary, she shared the suffering of Christ and offered the Father the redeeming death of her son and accepted the mission Jesus conferred on her to become the mother of his followers represented by John the apostle. Her title “woman” therefore not only connects her to the promised woman of Genesis chapter 3, it suggests her involvement in the work of redemption. Just as the old woman, Eve was instrumental to the fall, Mary the new Eve will be instrumental to the redemption of man.

Mary, as the good mother who knew her son well and that He will not say no to her request, moved to the servants and said to them, “do whatever He tells you.” What counsel can be better? She is the mother of Good Counsel and continues to tell us, ‘Do whatever my son tells you, He has the message of eternal life.’ Let us have confidence in her special solicitude towards all who call her. As our eight-year-old boy told us, “If you’re going to have a wedding, make sure you invite Jesus!” Invite Mary also. And not only for weddings, in every occasion, be sure to invite Jesus and Mary.

Happy Sunday

Rev. Fr. Chidi Onwuka MSSCC