Today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 62:1-5), at first glance, appears to be added at the end of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah as an afterthought. It appears as if the copy editor of the Book of Consolation, (Isaiah chapters 40-55) picked this poem off the Editorial Room floor, read it, and decided that at least it should go somewhere. So here it is at the end of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.
Zion, Jerusalem, was occupied by non-believers who have polluted the holy temple and have desecrated all that was of the Jewish religious traditions. It was as if the city was a rejected spinster, or an orphan, not belonging any more to God or God’s people, the Jews. But today’s love poem is a prophetic foretelling of the future embrace of God once again. The city and the people of Israel had been called by dishonoring names by former prophets, but now their names are changed, as do some marrying people change their names. No longer that, but a new this. It is a poem about redemption and the Groom, God is taking as bride all that once was disgraceful and abandoned.
That wedding imagery is continued in the Gospel Reading (John 2:1-11). Are you one of those people who feel bad about feeling good? There are some, maybe more than we think, who seem to think that, in order to be a ‘good’ Catholic they always have to be denying themselves, always ‘making sacrifices’. If they go out to have a good time, they come back afterwards with guilty feelings. If they think they are really enjoying life, there must be something wrong. That they are being ‘too worldly’.
Yet, in today’s Gospel we read a story about Jesus and his mother and his disciples taking part in a friend’s wedding party. Do we feel that Jesus should have just attended the wedding ceremony (the ‘religious part’) and kept away from the festivities? Do we have a problem with Mary enjoying a glass or two of wine?
Not only that, when the wine runs out, it is Jesus who sees to it that there is a plentiful supply. In fact, he provides them with so much wine that they could not possibly have drunk it all.
One clear message of today’s readings is that our Christian religion is a religion of joy. The genuine Christian really knows how to enjoy life. So many Christians have such a gloomy outlook on life and an even more gloomy attitude towards their religion. When you go into an average church on a Sunday morning, do you get the impression that this is really a happy bunch of people who have come to celebrate? For many people, religion, the Catholic religion, seems a terribly serious business.
During the recent Christmas season and up to now, we have been seeing God revealing himself through Jesus in several ways.
First, when Jesus is born, we see a refugee and homeless poor person lying in an animal’s feeding box, God is revealing himself in his solidarity with the poor and needy of the world. The first people to visit him are the poor and social outcasts, the shepherds. They recognize their God and worship him with hearts full of joy.
Second, God reveals himself to the foreigners, strangers, believers in other religions and believers in no religion, coming from remote parts of the world. This happens on the feast of the Epiphany when we remember those ‘wise men’ who come from ‘a far country’ to worship and offer precious gifts. Again, the atmosphere is one of joy and gladness.
Third, God reveals himself when Jesus is baptized in the river Jordan and is filled with the Spirit of God. Of this young carpenter, at this stage still a non-entity in the crowd, it is said: “This is my beloved Son – listen to him.” To listen to this young man, Jesus, is to listen to God himself.
And now, today, for a fourth time, in John’s gospel, God reveals himself when Jesus performs his first ‘sign’. (John does not call them ‘miracles’ but ‘signs’ of God acting among his people. There will be seven such ‘signs’ altogether in his gospel.)
To understand today’s story, we need to be aware that, like much of John’s writing, it is full of symbolic language. We would miss much if we were to see here only a ‘miracle’ by which Jesus helps a young bridegroom who finds himself in an embarrassing position on his wedding day.
In the first part of John’s gospel, after the Prologue, the events described are seen as taking place over a period of seven days, one week. Today’s story takes place on the seventh day of that week. According to the Hebrew Testament, when God created the world, when he gave life, he used six days for his work and rested on the seventh. In John’s gospel, too, it opens with a seven-day period that represents a “new creation”, when new life is given to the world through Jesus. And, on this final day of the “week”, we celebrate the life that God has given us through Jesus.
Even more significantly, today’s passage begins with the words “on the third day”, that is, on the third day after the previous incident that was described but, overall, the seventh day of that creative work. [Unfortunately, the words “on the third day” are not included in the Gospel text in our Mass reading.] Of course, the phrase “on the third day” is a foretaste of that “third day” on which the crucified Jesus rose to new life, a new life that was to be shared with all of us.
So as God rested on the seventh day when his work was complete, in John’s gospel the seventh day is one of joy and celebration for the life we have received.
The Gospel today also says there were six large stone pots full of water. They were there for the ceremonies of purification that were required by tradition on coming into the house and before eating. In this story, they represent the laws and religious customs of the Hebrew dispensation. And there are six, which is one short of the complete number, seven. (John tends to give a lot of meaning to numbers, especially the number ‘7’, in his gospel.)
Through the intervention of Jesus, the water in these jars is transformed into wine and a first-class wine at that (“You have kept the best wine until now.”). This wine represents the Christian Testament, the new life, the new Way of Jesus. It replaces the ritual water of the old Covenant.
A similar image is presented in the other gospels. In the confrontation between the Jewish leaders and Jesus, He speaks of the “new wine” which cannot be put into old containers. The new wine which he gives needs new wineskins. In other words, the new vision of life that Jesus brings can only be understood by leaving behind traditional ways of thinking and doing.
And there is an awful lot of wine. Each jar, we are told, could hold up to 20 or 30 gallons. Altogether 120-180 gallons of wine! Even the grandest party thrown by the super-rich would hardly provide that much – and this is just a village wedding!
Again, this is a symbol of the generosity and liberality of God and the fullness of life which he wants us to experience. It reminds us of the feeding of vast numbers of people in the desert when so much was left over. God wants to give us life, life in abundance. There is no need to feel bad about feeling good. No one should be enjoying life more than the disciple of Jesus.
All this takes place at a wedding banquet. In the Hebrew Testament, as the First Reading indicates, Israel was visualized as the bride of God. In the Christian (New) Testament, the Church, the Christian community, is the bride of Jesus. This image is spelled out in the Letter to the Ephesians where it is also linked to marriage.
When we wish to celebrate – a wedding, a birthday, an anniversary, or whatever – we normally sit down together to eat. In the Scripture, too, life with God and life with Jesus is pictured as a banquet. It is not a time for self-denial and sacrifice but a time to enjoy and be happy together.
And so, this wedding today reminds us of the meal we celebrate every Sunday, the Eucharist, when we gather to eat and drink around the table of the Lord. Our Mass is also a time of celebration. There is something sadly missing if we find it a boring experience. It is tragic if we regard ‘faithful attendance’ (the phrase itself is revealing) as a kind of ‘sacrifice’ or ‘penance’ or even a ‘duty’. “Even though it is terribly boring, I never miss it.”
And what is there to celebrate? At its deepest, we celebrate all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ through his life, his teaching, his suffering, death, and resurrection – all signs of God’s overwhelming love for us.
In the Second Reading (1 Corinthians 12:4-11), too, Paul reminds us of the treasury of gifts that has been given to each one of us. These gifts are not merely to be used for ourselves. They are the means, the “talents”, we have been given through which we make our unique contribution to our Christian community and to the overall task of building a society based on love, justice, freedom, and peace.
And we have much to celebrate and be thankful for in so far as so many people have used their gifts to promote my well-being and help me in my needs. The degree to which each of us does this decides the level of celebration in our Eucharist. Perhaps our Eucharists are not very exciting because, in fact, we have not been using our gifts for each other as much as we should.
Finally, Mary is there at the feast. It was through her sensitive awareness that Jesus comes to know about the bridegroom’s predicament. In this story, she is not only the mother of Jesus; she also represents the Church.
It is through the Christian community that Jesus comes to us. It is through the Church, through our brothers and sisters in the community, that we learn about the life that God in Jesus wants us to enjoy and share with him.
Through the Church, we receive the help we need to lead that “full life”. And through me, because I, too, am a member of that community, others are helped to fullness of life. And so, the Second Reading speaks of the unique gifts that each one has been given. These gifts have one purpose only – the building up of the community to greater fullness of life.
That is the life of the Church: we all give, and we all receive. Today, what will I give to help others towards enjoying a fuller and happier life.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!