2ND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME HOMILY – YEAR C 2025
MORE WINE NEEDED FOR A WEDDING PARTY IN CANA!
Jn 2.1-11 Is 62.1-5 1Cor 12.4-11
Only this week, I met up with a happy couple, Emily and Luke, who are looking forward to their wedding in February. Would you believe, without knowing this weekend’s Gospel, they chose this one for their ceremony here? It’s more than appropriate, given the realization that Jesus was present at Cana, and ultimately willing to help when the wine had run out! More to the point is that he is there in the first place, stopping in to be part of it all, with his newly called disciples.
Just as we’re starting Luke’s Year, we go back to John’s Gospel, with the wedding feast, as Jesus gets into action. It could be seen as a further Epiphany, or manifestation of Jesus’ identity, as empowered by God, though human in presence.
John the Evangelist describes this event as on the third day of Jesus’ public ministry, after his baptism by another John, the Baptist, who then directs Andrew to Jesus, followed by Peter, Philip and Nathanael. And now we have the scene, where Jesus is accompanied by his mother Mary and unnamed disciples, but presumably including those first called.
This is known as the first of Jesus’ signs in John’s Gospel, where he demonstrates his power to those who have shown faith in him, starting with his mother Mary, who is the one to set the ball rolling. Her concern is for the party to go on, and the hosts not be embarrassed by the wine running out. They certainly knew how to celebrate back then, and a wedding party would include the whole village coming together to affirm the happy couple, and join in the feast.
While I have reservations about the fuss and the finance, the photos and the flowers for weddings these days, the custom back then was of community support, and for festivities to go on for some time. These days, it’s all over in a day and a night, and at what cost?!? Then again, at the same time, I acknowledge it’s certainly a special moment in the lives of those who wish to share the love, joy and happiness with families and friends gathered.
What we can draw from this Gospel account is that Jesus is in no way a killjoy, or a puritan, when it came to celebrations, and here he is, in the centre of it all, confronted by mother Mary, who points to the fact that the wine has run out. There is initial resistance and reluctance on his part, but Mary’s persistence brings a positive response, with the quality of the wine surprising those in the know.
Brendan Byrne SJ puts it thus: “These servants… at her (Mary’s) prompting, act in faith and so become immediate witnesses to the miracle… Miracles do not precede faith and give rise to it. Rather, those who are prepared to act or ‘walk’ in faith are the ones who really ‘see’ miracles as disclosures of the divine presence, the ‘glory’ of God in ordinary human reality.”
The scene is not portrayed as drawing the attention of the crowd to Jesus, so much as reflecting John demonstrating that the water of the old purification rituals was to become something new, in the presence of Jesus, the wine said to be symbolic of what is described as the eschatological, or future, feast of heaven, where God rejoices with his people, as Isaiah reflects, with the image of a joyful wedding. Elsewhere, Isaiah uses the metaphor of fine foods and good wines to reflect a call to celebration, a reading sometimes used at funerals. Johns does have a theological intention underling his account.
Meanwhile, we see here the focus on Jesus as proclaimer of good news, and antagonist of religious authorities, as he emphasises the need for a new approach to living faith, not just in old rituals, but where there was not sufficient concern for the welfare of ordinary people, particularly those in some sort of trouble or need. From the start, he is out on the track, engaging with anyone open to his message of hope and healing.
Claude Mostowik MSC takes up today’s theme: “They have no wine” as reflecting the emptiness and suffering in people’s lives in many parts of today’s world, where something needs to be done in these existential circumstances. It’s a reminder to us that we all are to, again ion Mary’s words, “Do what he tells you”, so that you and I are conscious of a responsibility to ‘make a difference’ here and now to continue proclaiming or demonstrating God’s love and generosity, depicted in today’s Gospel, by our response to the needs of those around us and beyond, in a wide and wonderful, but sometimes weird and wicked, world.
Then a final word has to be said about today’s Second Reading, in the leadup to his famous discourse on the wonder of love, where Paul outlines the importance of acknowledging human diversity, (not just among the Corinthians, but us too!) and using the gifts and talents we are given to positive effect, responding to the Spirit guiding us in our journeys of faith and life.
john hannon 19th January 2025