How fitting that we begin ordinary time with such a common scene, a wedding reception where a couple are celebrating the start of a life long relationship. At a glance we are drawn to the transformation of water into wine but this isn’t about alcohol. Some listeners might be offended by the manner in which Jesus spoke to his mother, but this isn’t about etiquette either. Perhaps a good way to approach this incident in Cana would be to remember a line that Jesus said elsewhere in John’s gospel, “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jesus took something basic and essential to our lives, water, and transformed it into wine, which scripturally is a sign of joy, warmth, celebration, and abundance. He took something good and made it even better.
Unlike the relationship between a parent and child or between siblings, marriage is a bond that people freely enter into. A man and a woman freely choose to stand before witnesses and proclaim to each other their commitment to love and honor each other for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do they part. Their goal is to take a good relationship and make it an even better one.
Not every couple succeeds in keeping that promise, although many try their best to do so. I am mindful of my cousin, Generva, and her husband of 62 years, Bill. Their home was my home away from home while I was in the seminary in Minnesota. Listening to family stories during my last visit with them when Bill was dying, I became aware of how real their marriage had been with its ups and downs. As she sat by her dying husband, my cousin said more than once that their best years together had been the last years, as though God had saved the best for last, taking something good and making it even better. The strong love between them was very obvious to all of us near by.
Such is the message I pick up from the prophet, Isaiah. God freely yearns to enter into a lasting loving relationship with his chosen people. Isaiah’s message for the people of Israel is just as true today for us. “…as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you.” The intensity of God’s love for you surpasses that of any groom’s love for his bride.
Do we in turn rejoice in our relationship with God? Like the bride, who beams as though this is the happiest day of her life, are we thrilled to be in this marriage with God? Is our relationship with God a dynamic one or has it grown flat like stale pop? The turning point for my cousins came 30 years into their marriage when they truly became people of prayer, after Bill had suffered a major heart attack and underwent bypass surgery.
Like the husband who sees the best in his wife, God sees the best in us. Like the wife who sees what is best in her husband, we are invited to see what is best in God and that too happens through prayer.
As the gospel relate, Jesus transformed a very common substance, water, into superb wine, not “two-buck chuck.” He took something good and made it even better. That is the very reason why he came into the world. He endeavors to make humanity’s relationship with God even better than ever.
He came to change more than water into wine. He came to change what images we have of both ourselves and God. For this to happen, we may need to empty ourselves first of whatever old notions we have about God and ourselves. Do we picture God as being too rigid or ourselves as not being loveable? Recall how the waiter said, “You have kept the good wine until now.” By turning to Jesus, as my cousins did, and baring ourselves before God, we may discover that the best in our relationship with God is yet to come.
As Paul points out in this well known passage to the Corinthians, we are all blessed with gifts from God. Some may be hidden talents we are unaware of; others may be traits about ourselves we are hesitant to use or reveal. Jesus is yearning to tap those gifts but first we must be willing to find them and that happens through prayer.
Together, everyone’s gifts can transform any ordinary community into something extraordinary. Unfortunately, we don’t always honor or recognize these gifts in ourselves and others, but if we did, they would and could truly transform our faith community, for example, into an extraordinary one.
On Facebook, a priest friend posted me recently, “Do people see your religion as something that turns water into wine, or does it look more like turning wine into water? Does your life reflect the miracle at Cana? What would our lives look like….what would our church look like, if we let Jesus turn our water into wine?”
He raises good questions for us to ponder as we venture into ordinary time. Imagine what could happen if we considered this new year as the beginning of a new relationship with God, something like a wedding. Imagine how the world would change if each one of us took hold of even one of the marvelous gifts that the Spirit has given us and transformed our lives, like water transformed into good wine and then shared with others.
Our relationship with God could be vibrant, dynamic and personal or it can become static, stagnant and sterile. The choice is ours. Sticking together with God in this year of faith like a groom and his bride, we can discover that the best is yet to come. My cousins did and so can we.