1st Reading: Isaiah 62:1-5
2nd Reading: Corinthians 12: 4–11
Gospel: John 2: 1–11
Homily: Vince Cushing OFM (from notes taken)
Today is the first day I am free from quarantining for 2-3 weeks and it’s a pleasure to be with you today.
While the Feast at Canaan is important, we don’t usually pay much attention to it. If understood correctly, it speaks strongly to us. It’s important to note the wedding feast itself is not just a one-hour ceremony, but one lasting 8 days. It was a great opportunity for a community to celebrate marriage and family, to gather, to enjoy a time of song, dance, a communal meal, and fellowship.
There are 6 stone jars and each holds about 30 gallons for a total of 180 gallons which translates into 900 bottles of wine today. On the third day, they ran out of wine with 5 days to go. Mary informs Jesus there is no more wine and despite his response, he goes ahead and performs the miracle his mother asks for. The servers take the jugs to the Master of Ceremony who tastes the wine and then says to the bridegroom, “at a wedding like them, the best wine is normally served first….” It is a wonderful experience of the immense love of Jesus and of God.
The wine is a symbol of the immense generosity of God. More important than the miracle of changing water to wine is the notion of transformation. Jesus has done something important here, something new and transformative. He brings the new wine of his message and ministry: the immense generosity of God.
Looked at symbolically, Jesus is the new wine of the New Covenant – a message of extraordinary transformation of the past into his (new) message. Jesus offers the wine of himself bringing about our transformation so we might help transform the difficult world we live in.
This transformation is given to us at baptism which we received as infants. We are then nourished by the sacrament of Communion. Jesus blesses human life through the sacraments of marriage and family.
Our second reading is a catechism of gifts: what the Holy Spirit has given to us. The gifts are practical and real in the life of a community. Jesus is creating a new community rooted in himself and gifted by the Holy Spirit.
Over the years, I have experienced PAX as both an insider and outsider; I have marveled at the structure PAX has created. The idea of the immensity of God’s gifts and love and making this practical in the life of our community is why I think PAX has endured.
The verse that follows the reading we heard reminds us all these gifts of the Holy Spirit are wonderful, but the greatest gift is love.
The marriage feast at Canaan is not just a simple miracle, but a transformational experience. This is the gift we are given at the beginning of this church year. Let our prayer be of joy, thankfulness, and celebration and may it bring about the transformation of Jesus Christ.
Meditation: Kindness Boomerang: One Day