2nd Sunday in Ordinary time 19/01/2025
In Jesus’ days wedding celebrations brought together not just the couple’s family and friends but the whole village as in this case at Cana. For a wedding to run out of wine would have left the couple feeling very embarrassed as feasts were a rare treat at that time. According to the gospel, it wasn’t Jesus but Jesus’ mother who noticed that the wine had run out. She brought this situation of loss to the attention of her Son, simply saying ‘They have no wine’. Jesus’ response to his mother did not sound very promising, ‘Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not yet come’. Whether she understood these words of Jesus or not, she trusted that her son would respond to the situation of loss, so she says to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’.
Mary shows great trust, believing that her son will do the right thing. Maybe she knew her son better than he knew himself??? Her trust was vindicated because Jesus provided an abundance of the best wine causing the steward of the feast to ask the bridegroom why he had kept the best wine until then, and not served it first. On this occasion Jesus transformed a situation of loss into one of abundance. A short time later he would turn the sadness of the death of Lazarus into joy by raising Lazarus to life.
This same Jesus is present among us today as the risen Lord in the eucharist. He is always at work transforming moments of loss into something better. In the human settings of marriage and death, Jesus revealed his glory and his loving presence. He continues to reveal his loving presence in each of our lives, whether they be times of sorrow or of joy.
Growing older, we can lose our mobility or our health deteriorates; people can lose their good name because of unfair comments by others; we can lose loved ones in death. In the midst of such experiences of loss, we can feel ourselves ‘forsaken’ and ‘abandoned’ as found in the first reading. However, the overall message is that the Lord is present in the midst of such times of loss helping us move through them into a place of greater abundance.
Saint Paul reminds us that the Lord works in all sorts of different ways in different people. He adds that the particular way that the Lord gives the Holy Spirit to each of us is for a good purpose. Jesus recognises both our individual abilities and our failings, always working in us for our good and in a way that will always be unique to each one of us as well as to the situation in which we find ourselves. If we open ourselves to the Lord’s loving presence and invite him into the current situation then great things can happen just as happened at Cana for the married couple. The Lord can also change our experiences of loss into times of blessing if, like Mary, we trust him and ask him.
The Lord brings his transformative presence to times of joy as at Cana and to times of loss as at the death of Lazarus. In all things, therefore, always remember that Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full!
by Fr. Thomas O'Brien a.a
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