Meditation for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Meditation for the 2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

“Do whatever He tells you...”

--John 2:1-11

The last words we hear from the Blessed Virgin Mary are pretty good advice: Do whatever He tells you.  They are spoken in the famous Wedding at Cana story.  And much has been made of their important advice.  Do whatever He tells you.  Yes. Good advice, for sure. And because what happens next is the first miracle, or as John calls them signs, i.e.  the first manifestation of Christ’s glory, it would seem to be pretty important advice too.

In this too familiar story wherein Jesus turns the water into wine, we are presented with that striking moment when Mary comes to her Son and says: “They have no wine,” to which Jesus responds: “Woman, how does your concern affect me. My hour has not yet come.” (cf. 2:3-4) Mary then turns to the servants and gives them her advice: Do whatever He tells you.   And the servants do it and suddenly there is more than enough wine and the wine is so good that the steward thinks the hosts have held back their best wine for the last.  This wonderful little story (11 verses) is rich with theological truths that have been explored and expounded since the days of the Church fathers.  So, I wasn’t imagining that I would be making any new or important discoveries, however I wanted to try my hand at it. And yet as I set pondering Mary’s advice, I found myself instead drawn to something else even more:  What He tells them to do...

Jesus tells them to fill the jars with water, and they do. They fill them to the brim.  Then He tells them to “draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” (2:8)  And that was somehow the part that caught my attention as I listened Sunday during mass.  That part about the water.  Jesus didn’t ask the servants to do anything magical or dramatic or exotic or even out of the ordinary.  He simply asked them to fill the jars with water.  And then He asked them to present some of it to the “master of the feast.”  It was as if I had heard this story for the first time.  I couldn’t stop thinking about that water.  It’s just water.  That is all they bring.  And yet it is wine by the time they present it to the steward (or master).   And it isn’t just any wine, it is the good wine (sometimes translated: best).  What does this little detail mean? The water?

I can’t say for certain, but I want to propose something.  Water. It is common and every day we use it to rinse and wash and flush and soak and moisten and even to drink... We give it away for free at restaurants.  We forget to shut off the sprinkler (sometimes overnight) and waste it.  But, not to worry—it’s only water. I was thinking about that.  How Jesus asks the servants to do something they probably did every day of their lives: fill the water jars with water.  Nothing special.  Just do you work.  And they did. They did it with integrity. They filled those jars to the brim.  And that was all that Jesus required of them and that was how the first sign came to be; how the Kingdom of God began to be revealed; by some servants doing their menial everyday chore.  But there is one more piece to that puzzle: they did it for Jesus. 

Do you want to bring about the Kingdom of God? Do you want to be part of a sign, part of a miracle, a manifestation of God’s glory?  You don’t have to be a priest or a nun or a missionary to a foreign land; just do your work, your ordinary every day work –but do it for Jesus. Are you a math teacher? Teach for Jesus. You don’t have to proselytize, just teach each student with love and compassion and kindness.  Are you a salesperson? Then treat each of your customers as if they too were beloved children of God. Are you an executive, a company leader: then lead with patience and love and gentleness and integrity and honesty.

Jesus isn’t asking us to go out into the desert and wear sackcloth and eat locus.  He is asking us to bring our ordinary lives and work and live them and work them for Him. Bring Him your water: your tears, your sweat, your labor, your rest, your sorrow and your joy, even your laughter; give it to Him.  Fill the jars full with it. Even up to the brim. If we do that, He will do the rest: He will turn our water into wine. And not just Boones Farm; we’re talking something really good. We are all invited to this wedding feast –come. Bring some water with you. You don’t want to miss this. 

Because you did not believe: The Promised Land and the broken shield

“The Lord then said to Moses and Aaron:

Because you did not believe that I could

Assert my holiness before the eyes of the

Israelites, you will not lead this assembly

Into the country which I am giving them.”

--Numbers 20:12

“Come consider the wonders of the Lord…

He puts an end to wars…/ He breaks

The bow, He snaps the spear, shields

He burns in the fire…” –Psalm 46: 8-9

This was my morning reading today. I have been working my way through the book of Numbers, and just came to that wondrous story of the Israelites at Kadesh complaining about their lack of water and Moses striking the rock with a staff to bring forth water for the people (cf. Nm 20. 2ff).  And it is a little painful to run hard up against that statement by God: Because you did not believe… you will not lead the people into the promised land!

I was troubled. Why was God being so hard on Moses and Aaron?  What did they do wrong? They basically did what He told them to do! They took the rod and when Moses struck the rock the water flowed.  Is the problem that Moses struck the rock? Maybe... God told them to “order the rock to yield its waters (some translations read: speak to the rock…” (20: 8b) but instead Moses strikes the rock --twice! There is speculation by some scholars that the second blow is the real problem. But, I don't know.  I'm still pondering it, and it is still troubling. There seems to be a kind of vindictiveness to this God who bans Moses and Aaron from the promised land simply because Moses lost his temper with the people (something God does quite often in this part of the Bible) and struck the rock.

Yet, there was that psalm.  And it kept echoing in my head as I read Numbers.  It worked on me like a counter-melody or a "haunting refrain." Why had God put these two readings together for me this morning? Why had He given me a reading about destroying our defenses and our weapons and a reading about how lack of trust in God could keep us out of the promised land; what was God saying to me? I imagine it has something to do with the way I cling to security and safety.

In the psalm God tells us how He puts an end to war: He breaks our weapons, melts our shields. We are left completely defenseless, completely vulnerable –and completely dependent on Him for protection.  And in the reading from Numbers He told me that if I don’t trust Him completely, depend on Him fully, I cannot reach the promised land.

And as I read the psalm one of the first things that came into my mind was a person I work with who frightens me. The authority and the defensiveness and the anger this person demonstrates make me anxious and fearful and worried about protecting myself and my job.  And my immediate thought was: if I see this person today, I should speak to them. I should share this with them. I should tell them about this wonderful passage from Psalm 46.

God will break our bows, shatter our spears, burn our shield.  God will take away our defenses and then, on top of that, we must trust Him, and THEN, and only THEN, can He lead us to the promised land.  Because the promised land isn’t about an earthly, geographic, space. The Promised Land is found in our faith, in our trust. It is that place where we put our complete faith in God. It is a place without weapons, without defenses, where God is our shield and our guide and our way and our promise.  The way to the Promised Land is through putting our faith in God's might, not our own. The way to the Promised Land leads straight  to the Cross, and then the tomb, and only then to the resurrection.  That is the Promised Land. And the way to get there begins with giving up your weapons, and putting down your shields.