The Wedding Feast at Cana

If you are like me, you tend to form habits. I usually get up around the same time of day. I usually have the same thing for breakfast nearly everyday. I have my work habits, my prayer habits, and so on. All of us tend to be creatures of habit. This is why we don’t necessarily like change, because it pushes us out of our comfort zone. Mark Twain once said that “the only person who likes change is a baby with a wet nappy”.

But deep down I’m sure we all sense that change is needed in certain areas of our life. Or perhaps the better word is transformation. We need to be transformed. And this is something that we simply cannot do on our own. We need Jesus.

This is why I find today’s Gospel so inspiring and encouraging. In John’s Gospel the very first sign Jesus works is to change water into wine. Years later at the Last Supper Jesus will change wine into His Blood. Jesus can take something ordinary and transform it into something extraordinary, even supernatural. If Jesus can change water into wine and wine into His Sacred Blood, then He can certainly bring about amazing transformation in each one of us. He can change us from sinners into saints. He already did that at our baptism. He transformed us from wounded children of Adam and Eve into beloved sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, raising up our human nature to a dignity that even causes the angels to marvel at. But our personal sins after baptism can still pull us down and even discourage us. Certain sinful habits can make us feel that we can never become saints.

This is where our Mother Mary comes to our help. Just as she noticed that the wine had ran out at the wedding feast in Cana and went to Jesus with this need: “They have no wine”, she notices the areas of our lives that need change, healing, growth, forgiveness and transformation. She intercedes for us before her Son. Jesus’ initial answer might give the impression that He does not care: “Woman, what is that to me and to you? My hour has not yet come”. But notice Mary’s absolute trust. She does not tell Jesus what to do or how to do it. She simply states the need, fully trusting in His response to her words of intercession.

With great simplicity and trust she turns to the servants: “Do whatever He tells you”. We know, of course, from this Gospel, that Jesus responds with an abundant and generous gift of the finest wine, far beyond anyone’s imagined expectation. Imagine opening up your wine cellar, if you had one, and finding anywhere from 600 to 900 bottles of choicest wine!

Jesus brings about the miracle. Jesus causes the transformation. But notice that this was in response to Our Lady’s absolute, unwavering faith, trust and surrender. “Do whatever He tells you.” Our Lady is bringing our need for transformation to Jesus, but she is also urging us to collaborate with God’s power to transform us: “Do whatever He tells you.” Our Lady is teaching us that we can truly be transformed. We can become saints. We can overcome sinful habits and form good, holy habits. But we have to trust as she did. We have to believe in Jesus’s power to work a miracle in our lives. We have to surrender to God’s grace and stop trying to do it on our own. If we try to do it on our own, the water will still be water. The bad habits will keep coming back. If we imitate Mary’s faith, trust and surrender, real positive change will begin to take place. The water will turn into the wine of salvation. We will see growth. We will experience transformation. We will rediscover the hope that God placed in us when we were baptized. Let us indeed believe, trust, surrender and do whatever He tells us!

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Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

CCC 528: at Cana, Christ shows himself to be Messiah, Son of God, Saviour
CCC 796: the Church as Bride of Christ
CCC 1612-1617: marriage in the Lord
CCC 2618: Mary’s intercession at Cana
CCC 799-801, 951, 2003: charisms at the service of the Church

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As we prepare to offer the Eucharistic Prayer and to celebrate the heart of the Eucharistic mystery, it is easy to overlook the Prayer said over the Offerings. But the Prayer appointed for the second Sunday of Ordinary Time contains a little summary of the whole theology of the Mass. It would be a shame to miss it.

It begins: Grant us, O Lord, we pray, that we may participate worthily in these mysteries.

We remember that though the Mass is the Mass whether we approach it worthily or not, the Mass will only benefit us, bring us the fruit of salvation, if we take part with humble and contrite hearts.

This is because we are concerned with mysteries, things beyond our comprehension, and beyond our control too. These are holy things, divine things, things we may long for, but things we can only approach with that fear and trembling which the all-surpassing power of God must always inspire.

The prayer continues: for whenever the memorial of this sacrifice is celebrated the work of our redemption is accomplished.

The Mass is a sacrifice because it is a memorial of the sacrifice of Christ. And this memorial is no tomb containing dead things, a lifeless witness to what has passed away. It is a sacrament, a vehicle of divine life, making really present the mystery of salvation it so eloquently signifies.

For this reason it can accomplish the work of our redemption, saving us from slavery to sin, bringing us into the freedom of the children of God.

Here is surely a prayer we can joyfully conclude: through Christ our Lord, Amen.

BIDDING PRAYERS

Let us pray for all the Catholic faithful, that with hearts purified from sin we may partake of the sacraments with joy, and further God's work of redemption.

Let us pray for the reunion of all Christians, that the sacrament of unity may show forth more fully what its name signifies.

Let us pray for the faithful departed, that having partaken of the mysteries of Christ on earth, they may now see the realities here hidden under sacramental signs.

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Note: These hymns have been chosen from different sources.

Bread for the world of hunger (CFE92, L625)

Father and life giver (CFE157, L659, LHON 247)

Now in this banquet (CFE511, L623)

We celebrate this festive day (CFE773, LHON715)

Key

CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone

L – Laudate

LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)

TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)