2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr C
John 2:1-11
“There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding … Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs and so revealed his glory.”
Every day now, the first rays of golden light peep over the Mustang Mountains earlier and earlier. Since the Winter Solstice, each day brings a little more light to our days and warms our hearts with the promise of Spring and new life. The liturgy echoes the theme with the birth of Jesus. The Light of the World sends forth his first rays of golden light cradled in the arms of his mother and heralded by angels announcing Emmanuel, God-With-Us. A welcome message of hope for humanity wrapped up in that tiny child, like us in all things, except sin!
Christmas celebrates a wedding. The wedding of the Creator of the Universe with his bride – humanity – in the person of Jesus. The Divine and the human are united in a wedding of natures: God becomes a human being, fully human, fully divine. The long-awaited Emmanuel walks among us and reveals to us the face of the Father and the love that is their unity in the person of the Spirit.
Today’s liturgy carries us along quickly to Jesus’ first sign. And where does Jesus inaugurate his first mission? That’s right – a wedding! To save the newlyweds the embarrassment of running short of wine, at his mother’s bidding he transforms the water into fine wine. It’s as if he is saying: I am the wedding of God with creation. Nothing is ordinary at its heart anymore. You are filled with God. The person next to you is filled with God. In fact, the very air you breathe is the breath of God. Do not fear or disdain seeming ordinariness. It is the precious vessel of the Divine. Like the miracle of water changed to wine, don’t let appearances be all that you see. Go deeper. We are all so much more than we can ever imagine. In God, there is no category called ‘ordinary.’ There is only God who fills all.
Today’s Gospel ends with, “Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs and so revealed his glory.” And what is Jesus’ glory? It is the glory of his humanity wed to the divine and made manifest among us in his humbleness, his living in the love of the Father through his love of all with whom he came in contact and in his fulfillment of the Father’s plan. May we all allow God to transform the water of our ordinariness into the wine of his transforming love.