They Have No Wine!

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 62:1-5; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Jn 2:1-11

The second Sunday in ordinary time invites us to grow in our spiritual maturity.

The three readings of the day direct us toward the theme. 

The first reading highlights Zion’s vindication coming from God. An integral part of the restoration of God’s people is that they will be called by a new name of glory and security. The special status of Jerusalem will be seen when God regards it as a crown of glory. The fact that God takes delight in them offers joy and consolation for the people battered by defeat and desolation. The theme of Yahweh as a spouse underlines the fact that the disloyal Israel is restored to that joyful, innocent age of long ago when she was the virgin spouse of God.

In the second reading, we find Paul opening a discussion on spiritual gifts and articulating that they originate in the Spirit. While making the purpose of spiritual gifts clear to the Corinthians, Paul shows that the spiritual gifts should help us serve Christ’s body. Here, he dispels the notion that spiritual gifts can only be used for individual welfare. Even though there are nine gifts, there is only one Spirit who gives them to us and uses them in us. Hence, we are empowered by the Spirit to enrich the body of Christ – the Church – through our gifts. 

Though it is a familiar account, the Gospel on the wedding at Cana, where Jesus changed the water into wine, offers us wonderful new insights. 

Though the passage is about the shortage of wine in the wedding feast, the highlight is the dynamic complementarity between Jesus and Mary. Both Mary and Jesus find themselves in a situation where each needs to uphold the other. 

Mary intuits the shortage of wine at the wedding and sympathizes with her hosts. But in forcing Jesus to perform the miracle, Mary looks more resolute about helping them. In other words, Mary, who is sympathetic to the problem encountered by her hosts, refuses to be sympathetic to Jesus’ concern that his hour has not yet come. When it comes to helping her hosts, Mary disregards even her son’s request to await the arrival of his due time. Mary seems sure and certain that Jesus’ intervention would result in giving the wedding guests good wine, the quality of which they would have never tasted. 

On the part of Jesus, he is careful not to misread his mother’s insistence as disobedience. Jesus understands the fact that his mother was compelled by the plight of the family and seeks to help them by any means, and that is why she refuses to take a no from him. Hence, what Mary initiates, Jesus fulfills without any grumbling. 

We understand that when it comes to helping others, both Jesus and Mary act selflessly. Mary could not overlook the plight of her hosts. Jesus could not ignore the compelling proposal of his mother to help the family in need.  

The profound meaning of the readings leaves behind some important insights for our reflection. 

1.God wills the good of His people. Death and decay are not the final words of God. When God takes delight in the happiness of His people, it is the people who must prove faithful to the love of God. 

2. The talents given to us by God are not merely for our self-growth. If we deprive the community of our contributions, it amounts to a betrayal of the gifts of the Spirit in us. Putting our unique talents in the service of the community is Christian charity. 

3. Jesus and Mary teach us that if we call ourselves Christians, we must let ourselves be affected by the concerns of the needy humanity. Spiritual maturity happens when we are bothered by what dehumanizes others and take decisive steps to transform their lives. 

Let us pray that, by God’s grace, we may continue to evolve into faithful and mature Christians.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar