Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs
and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs
and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 20, 2019
John 2:1-11
Next weekend we will celebrate a wedding feast, not one from the past, but one for today. The bride and the groom of John’s Gospel have no names. This is not about them, it’s about us. This Good News we proclaim after the Baptism of the Lord is that God has come to us like a spouse to be with us and to take us as His own forever. This Gospel also reveals something about us. Our wine has run out. We are a people without a future, without hope, without joy until we invite Jesus Christ to be our guest and until we follow the instructions of his mother: “Do whatever he asks you.” For those who will, there will be a feast that lasts forever. For those who will, there will be no future without joy and without abundance. The days in which we live give convincing evidence that our wine is out. War, violence, poverty, consumerism, selfishness, infidelity, treating the gift of human life as though it were a disposable mass of tissue, abandoning our elders when they can no longer produce for us or entertain us, un-parented children violent, disrespectful, and helpless, half-empty churches, and the richest nation on earth cutting assistance to the poor and leaving millions without health care while it fires million dollar missals in the desert all says one thing: our wine has run out. This is not a nice, cozy, romantic story about saving the day at Cana for a nice young couple. This is about a God looking for a partner for life: about a God who wants to reveal his endless mercy and abundant gifts in a most extravagant way. Today we know that our wine has run out, and that until Jesus Christ comes into our lives, we are left with the cheap wine or just jars or water.
Fr. Tom Boyer