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Before I Forget…
· "They have no more wine" -Mary, Mother of Jesus
Friday is Valentine's Day. I suppose I'll get a phone call next week from someone who gets engaged on Valentine's Day and now they will want to plan a wedding. In John's gospel, Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding in Cana. You know the story… they run out of wine!
Jesus goes to the wedding with his mother and his friends, not to perform miracles but to have a good time. In fact, it seems he just dropped in along with several of his new disciples. As we read the gospels we know that Jesus liked occasions like weddings. Marriage is one of his favorite metaphors and he often uses the word bridegroom to describe himself. His ministry is likened to an extremely long wedding feast. So long as I'm around, he told his friends, enjoy yourselves. Forget that stuff about fasting and looking gloomy.
There is no mention that this wedding was something special. No one special lived in Cana anyway. And the fashionable set was most likely got married in Jerusalem at a big synagogue with a lavish reception in the big town. The wedding in Cana was simply a good party for everyone involved, and for as long as the wine held out.
But here is where a straightforward story gets interesting. They run out of wine early, but instead of asking the guests to go and find their own, the mother of Jesus gets involved. Why does Mary feel responsible for the wine? Maybe the unexpected arrival of Jesus and his friends puts a strain of the supplies and Mary feels responsible for that, as most mothers do about unplanned actions of their children. Anyway, their conversation is unintelligible to anyone else as is often the case between mother and son. It's Mary who starts issuing orders.
And something outrageous happens. It's not that Jesus simply increases the wine. If you take the story literally, he produces 700 liters of wine, and top quality at that, but maybe we're not meant to take that figure literally.
What the wedding at Cana wants us to take seriously, and the reason it's told at the beginning of John's gospel, is the way God works in the world: Through Jesus, later through the disciples of Jesus, and now through us, the disciples of Christ in 2003. Sound impossible that God works through us in this world?
God's formula is rather simple, if you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, don't spend too much time in holy places, but get out into the world of weddings, dinner parties, and celebrations of any kind. Expect to see God at work in the midst of everything going on, even if it's something as silly as the wine running out! Act as though that can really happen. Help to make it happen as best you can and, even more important, stay open to God. Because you never know what's going to happen when God is in the picture.
The thing we learn from the stories of Jesus is that God has to work with what is available. The story is rather simple. They didn't send out for anything special. Jesus used the available water. Jesus doesn't make a big fuss about solving the problem. The guests and the wine steward didn't even know what was going on. It was only the waiters who knew that something extraordinary occurred. And, of course, his mother!
You know what: Most of the time in our lives God works silently, unseen, without credit, because God usually works through people like you and me! I know it's hard to believe. When God works through us, we try to take all the credit, and we forget of overlook the fact that God, most of the time, works through ordinary folks. Think about it: a new life (you or God); some hope in hopeless situations (you or God); when there is healing in a person's life (you or God); when grief and pain is eased (you or God); when forgiveness is given and received (you or God); when love is experienced with delight and surprise (you or God). Most of the times in our lives, who gets the credit?
Everything in our lives is a gift from God. Even in the little things of everyday life, God's gifts are working in us and through us. We need to be clear about that and keep it in mind, because one of these days, we're going to be overwhelmed by love and grace that knows no limit.
Can you believe that God is at work in our Church, in our families, in our world? Good news, isn't it?
Really enjoy St. Valentine's Day!
Fr. Bill
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