John
2:1-11 from The Gospel of John
Directed
by Philip Saville
Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)
Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)
Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Gospel John 2:1-11 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)
At that time: There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’
Now there were six stone water jars there for the
Jewish rites of purification, each holding seventy or one hundred litres. Jesus
said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to
the brim. And he said to them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of
the feast.’ So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now
become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had
drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said
to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk
freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.’
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Marriage at Cana
Tintoretto [Web Gallery of Art]
Back in the 1960s when I was in the seminary here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, now the residence of about 70 retired Columbans, I contacted Molly and Jimmy who lived about ten minutes by car from here. I knew that Molly was related to me through my maternal grandmother and I remembered attending the funeral of her mother, known to my mother as Aunt Jane of Tara, in 1950 when I was seven. As far as I know Jane was a first cousin of my grandmother Annie Dowd, who married William Patrick Collins, my maternal grandfather. When my mother was young she would spend part of the summer with her Aunt Jane and her husband Owen. It was great for a child form the inner city in Dublin to be out in the countryside of County Meath. She often spoke of those days and would always smile when she mentioned her Uncle Owen. Jane was the stricter one and Owen was the 'softie'. But she loved both of them.
When I wrote to Molly and Jimmy I got an immediate response and they invited me to their home for Sunday dinner. Over the next few years I enjoyed many Sunday dinners with them. Molly's unmarried sister Maggie lived with them in a cottage near Tara, where the High Kings of Ireland once lived and which can be seen from the front of St Columban's.
Molly had been in very poor health since the birth of her second child Mary, known as Mae. Her first was William, known as Billy. He died in December 2017. Molly had spent three years on her back from some time after the birth of Mae. She never enjoyed robust health and in her latter days, when she lived in a nursing home, she had become blind.
What I remember most from visiting Molly and Jimmy was the warmth of their welcome and Molly's radiant smile. Jimmy worked for the Irish Land Commission, as I recall, and his salary was a modest, though adequate one. I remember him saying to me one time that he was happier in his cottage than Lord Dunsany was in his home, the nearby Dunsany Castle. The family name of the Lords Dunsany is Plunkett and they are related by ancestry to St Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, executed at Tyburn, London, in 1681, the last Catholic to be martyred in England.
For most of their married life Jimmy and Molly lived the sickness part of their vow in sickness and in health. As I get older more and more do I see couples living that vow to the full. Such couples to me are radiating God's love for us. The Sacrament of Matrimony is a reflection of the love of Christ as the Bridegroom for his Bride, the Church. The First Reading of the Mass, from Isaiah, tells us, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
The response to the Responsorial Psalm is, Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples. That is what Jimmy and Molly were doing for me, without being aware of it. That is the vocation of every couple who have bestowed the Sacrament of Matrimony on each other. It is the bride and groom who do that, not the priest. He, as an official witness of the Church, does indeed bless the couple during the ceremony with the Nuptial Blessing but it is they who give Jesus Christ to each other as the foundation of their marriage, till death do us part.
The Marriage at Cana (detail)
Paolo Veronese [Web Gallery of Art]
In recent decades in the formerly predominantly Christian Western world both marriage and family have been undermined and even ridiculed. Marriage is the foundation of the family. Marriage is between man and woman. In the first chapter of the Bible we read, So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created
him; male
and female he created them. And
God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ (Genesis 1:
27-28). The next chapter tells us, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Jesus repeats this teaching in Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:8 as does St Paul in Ephesians 5:31.
The science of biology tells us that each of us is either male or female and that it is impossible for anyone to change their sex.
It is only a man and a woman who can be fruitful and multiply. In recent decades many countries have rejected the truth of this reality, lived since we humans first emerged, and proclaimed as a 'right' that two persons of the same sex can marry. Such a relationship is intrinsically sterile and, objectively, is an affront to God the Creator who made us male and female. But our consciences have been dulled and corrupted by the powerful international lobby that promotes and celebrates this dangerous nonsense.
The profoundly intimate act of love that enables a couple to express their commitment to be one till death do us part and that enables them to be fruitful and multiply belongs only within marriage. In God's plan a couple marry before they have children. In God's plan if they are still of fertile age they pledge, at least in Catholic weddings, to be open to new life.
It has to be acknowledged that in most of the Western world it has become more and more difficult for a couple to welcome and raise children because of the prohibitive cost of housing. Decisions about house-building by national and local authorities are a moral issue, not a utilitarian one. And in many places dues to poverty and/or war living conditions are dire, making it impossible for families to live decently.
Jesus' miracle of changing the water into wine is a sign of God's unbounded generosity. The six stone water jars each held a large amount of water, as the video above correctly shows. The good wine that Jesus produced amounted to the equivalent of more than 400 bottles of wine according to Scripture scholars.
The gospel passage ends with, This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. St John uses the word 'sign' for miracle'.
Jesus did this to manifest his glory, that is, to enable people to see who he really was so that they would believe in him as God who became Man and so that each of us would have eternal life. Every married couple is called to manifest the glory of Jesus by the way they live their marriage, founded on the love of Jesus Christ whom they gave to each other on their wedding day. The Lord delights in such a couple and rejoices over them, as Isaiah tells us today. I know that God delights in couples like Jimmy and Molly because I saw in them their delight in one another as husband and wife. That grace remains with me to this day.
For Me and My Gal
Gene Kelly and Judy Garland
This song, written in 1917, was used in the 1942 movie with the same title. For me it reflects how most Western people a hundred years ago saw weddings and marriage. A wedding normally took place in a church: The parson's waiting for me and my gal. A couple was open to having children: We're gonna' build a little home for two or three or more. It involved the community: For weeks they've been sewing, every Susie and Sal.
These were the aspirations and hopes of most people then. They no longer are. We are all the poorer because of that. But the Alleluia verse gives us a clear direction: God called us through the gospel, so that we may obtain the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Santo Niño de Cebú
Feast of the Santo Niño, Philippines
On the third Sunday of January the Church in the Philippines celebrates the Feast of the Santo Niño, the Holy Child. You will find Sunday Reflections for that Feast here.
Traditional Latin Mass
Second Sunday After the Epiphany
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 01-19-2025 if necessary).
Epistle: Romans 12:6-16. Gospel: John 2:1-11.
This Sunday the Mass in both forms uses the same Gospel.
In
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