WEDDING AT CANA YEAR C 2013 DEACON JOHN MCMULLEN
The wine gave out. The wine failed. The wine ran short.
The wine gave out.
The wine failed.
The wine
ran short.
We all give out or fail or run short sometimes, don’t we?
We are crushed - sometimes by life, loss of a
job, a broken relationship, loss of a friend, failure at love, an illness,
death, or tragedy.
We just can’t seem to get all of our things
accomplished. We are stretched thin and finally there is nothing left to give.
We are empty. We fall short.
When we are crushed we sometimes fail. Even
newly married couples find themselves quickly out of the wine of bliss shortly
after their honeymoon. We give out and run short of God’s grace and then the
party’s over.
We know how wine is made. The grapes have to
be crushed. And they are crushed together. It hurts. The grapes have to die in
order to give life to a bottle of wine.
And this is where we find ourselves with Jesus
today.
And in the midst of this wedding feast the Mother of Jesus sees
the immediate need of the married couple before the headwaiter does!
Mary recognized the
needs of others and decided to do something about it.
Now when Mary says they have no wine, at first
Jesus seems as if he isn’t interested. But there is no disrespect.
He calls her
WOMAN, the Mother of all the living. And Mary being a good Jewish Mother
perhaps gave Jesus “the look” because the very next thing that she says is: “Do
whatever he tells you.”
Mary’s message to us is to “DO WHATEVER HE
TELLS YOU.”
We should imitate Mary. We should always be
ready to serve others. As Mary kept her eyes open for
opportunities to help others, we too should seize those opportunities.
Mary teaches us that having an attitude
of service towards
others is key to being a
true disciple of Christ.
So too for us we are changed just as the water
is into fine wine. As we allow the baptismal waters to fill us, then the
ordinary water of our lives can give way to God’s grace and bear great fruit, and
we will become the fine, delicious wine of the Holy Spirit's gifts. We are to
be transformed into the most extraordinarily exquisite wine of love and
compassion, the richest divine wine of grace.
And when we open ourselves to God, the Holy
Spirit will enable us to do the work of God to benefit our church and our world.
The superabundance of God’s grace is ours to
share!
Think of all those who are rejected,
marginalized, and pushed aside by society. They long for a festive banquet
because they yearn for love and community!
The wedding at Cana reveals the deepest thirst
in each of us: The desire and need to be loved and to love!
Jesus is calling us forth to the wedding
feast, the Supper of the Lamb.
The feast is NOW
Jesus reveals that he wants to change the
waters of our broken humanity into wine of joy!
So
as we celebrate the Eucharist together, we do
whatever he tells us – and we become better.
May we be transformed into the wine of
compassion to our neighbors, and be willing to pour ourselves out in service so
that the world may believe.
