Homily - Sunday
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA
A wedding day is often a day many brides have given great thought to for a long time. It is a day that can have a massive amount of preparation and resources put into it: With preparing the couple: With the formation and instruction of the couple by the church. Preparing the church: Flowers, musician, choir, groomsmen, and bridesmaids. Preparing the bride: hair nails, makeup, and of course the dress. Preparing for the reception: the centerpieces, the table assignments, the food, the cake, the speeches, the DJ, and even the drinks. It is indeed a day that requires great preparation, and it is all worthwhile, as it is the day that celebrates the marriage of a husband and wife. It is a day to celebrate the new couple uniting as one. It is the birth of a new family. But despite all the preparations, things can go wrong. No matter how well planned, power sometimes goes out, catering trucks sometimes break down, singers get strep throat, ring bearers are unpredictable, and cakes can tip over. Sometimes there are other surprises.
A couple of years ago Maroon 5, a popular music band, came out with a song, Sugar. And For the video they went from wedding venue to wedding venue in Los Angeles, setting up and surprising the guests by playing a few songs at each of the wedding receptions. Could you imagine your wedding being crashed by such a popular and well known band? Unfortunately, when something so spectacular happens, it takes the focus off the real reason for the celebration - the couple. And the memories become less about the vows exchanged, and the love in their eyes for each other, and instead, the one event, the band crashing the wedding, becomes the one stand-out thing everyone remembers.
Today’s Gospel reading, speaks of a wedding whose name of the newly wed couple we do not know. We do however have record of a very significant event that happened, that with no doubt would be talked about long after, in fact we are talking about it today, some 2000 years later. Of course that event is Jesus’ first miracle. The changing of water into wine. The beginning of his public ministry.
We know of only a few of the people involved in the wedding. Of course as I mentioned we have the unnamed bride and groom, Jesus, and the disciples were invited, and it mentions Mary, Jesus mother is there as well. As the story unfolds, we are also made aware of the presence of the servers, and headwaiter.
One of these people really stands out to me, and that is Mary. I don’t know if you have ever been witness to an accident, or some other tragedy, but it seems that sometimes the crowd just stands around after the accident, as though helpless, and it isn’t until one person takes action, or calls for others to take action that the crowd begins to help, and so it was with Mary. I am sure others noticed that the wine was running out, but Mary, with her motherly instincts, with her love being focused on others as mothers often do, realized something needed to be done.
And when Mary notices the wine is out, she goes to Jesus, like we do, in prayer. She didn’t go to the headwaiter, she went to Jesus and interceded for the young couple, asking Jesus for help on their behalf.
It was Mary saying to Jesus, “they have no wine.” It was Mary stepping forward to call others to action that put the solution into motion, and she did it by going to Jesus. And I am sure, she doesn’t get the answer she wanted either. She certainly would have much rather heard her son Jesus say “Sure Mom, I’ll take care of it.” Instead Jesus responds, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” but she trusted in God anyway, and once again, called those around her to action, insisting that the headwaiter do what Jesus tells them. Showing her true faith in God, faith that God understands our concerns, and that our concerns are God’s concerns.
So often we forget that prayer is a viable option, that we can go to Jesus with our concerns. We can, through our love for others, see the needs of others and ask for God’s intervention. We need to listen to what Jesus tells us. He may not give you the answer you are looking for, his answer may make you uncomfortable or require you to take more action, but we need to trust none-the-less, we need to do as Mary said and “Do whatever he tells you.”
Pope Francis reflecting on this reading in a homily once said “Wine is a sign of happiness, love and plenty. How many of our adolescents and young people sense that there is no longer any of that wine to be found in their homes? How many women, sad and lonely, wonder when love left, when it slipped away from their lives? How many elderly people feel left out of family celebrations, cast aside and longing each day for a little love, from their sons and daughters, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren? This lack of this “wine” can also be due to unemployment, illness and difficult situations which our families around the world may experience. Mary is not a “demanding” mother, nor a mother-in-law who revels in our lack of experience, our mistakes, and the things we forget to do. Mary, quite simply, is a Mother! She is there, attentive and concerned. It is gratifying to hear this: Mary is a Mother!”
And as Pope Francis went his homily on to further reflect: “All this began because “they had no wine”. It could all be done because a woman – the Virgin Mary – was attentive, left her concerns in God’s hands and acted sensibly and courageously. But there is a further detail, the best was yet to come: everyone went on to enjoy the finest of wines. And this is the good news: the finest wines are yet to be tasted; for families, the richest, deepest and most beautiful things are yet to come. The time is coming when we will taste love daily, when our children will come to appreciate the home we share, and our elderly will be present each day in the joys of life. The finest of wines is expressed by hope, this wine will come for every person who stakes everything on love. And the best wine is yet to come, in spite of all the variables and statistics which say otherwise. The best wine will come to those who today feel hopelessly lost. Say it to yourselves until you are convinced of it. Say it to yourselves, in your hearts: the best wine is yet to come. Whisper it to the hopeless and the loveless. Have patience, hope, and follow Mary’s example, pray, open your heart, because the best wine is yet to come. God always seeks out the peripheries, those who have run out of wine, those who drink only of discouragement. Jesus feels their weakness, in order to pour out the best wines for those who, for whatever reason, feel that all their jars have been broken.”
So as we go through our life, and it seems, that despite all of our preparations, no matter how detailed we had our life planned out, when things seem to be going wrong and we get low on wine, when we feel the absence of love, happiness and abundance, when are feeling despair, we can go to Jesus, asking for His help just like Mary, because there is hope that the finest wine is yet to come. Because despite the situations we may find ourselves in, Jesus offers us great hope that there is an abundance of the best, yet to come, that the good wine has indeed been saved for last.
In the video, it is so sad that those parents who were interviewed seemed to not prioritize their kids in their "mature" lives. I hope the video will be a lasting teaching moment. Thank you for posting this, Deacon Dave!
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