Gospel Reflection Jan 16 – Deacon Paul
Sunday, January 16
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
John 2: 1-11
Gospel:
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
“They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her,
“Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servers,
“Do whatever he tells you.”
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.”
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.
Gospel Reflection:
I am not known to be much of a wine connoisseur, but I do know a great vintage story about Jesus when I read it. Today, we find the story about the Wedding Feast at Cana where Jesus performs His first public “sign” by turning water into wine.
Where we might think of this as a miracle, John takes it one more step by using the word “signs.” A sign is something that points to a reality beyond itself, and the purpose of the signs is to reveal Jesus as the Son of the Father.
When Jesus’ mother said that “They have no wine,” Jesus reminded His mother that the time for His disclosure to the world had not yet come. Nonetheless, He did not deny her demand and we gain insight into Mary’s gift of her intercession with her Son.
Many of the Church Fathers believed that the turning of water into wine was a foreordination of the transformation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ during the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist and a precursor to the shedding of His blood on the Cross for the love of mankind.
Just as Jesus filled the empty water jars with wine, let us also fill the empty hearts around us with love. By the miraculous sign of Cana, Jesus challenges us also to enrich the empty lives of those around us with the new wine of love, mercy, concern, and care.
And so, friends, is Jesus the Chief Steward of your life? Are your lives filled to the brim with the good wine… intoxicating you with the life of God…inebriating you with the blood of Christ and leaving you under the influence of the Holy Spirit?
As we partake of the miraculous and mysterious transformation of the bread and wine, let us remember to thank God for granting us the blessings of partaking of the Very Best Wine! Let us take heed of Mary’s final recorded command in the New Testament and “Do whatever he tells you.”
Deacon Paul Zemanek