Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 17 January 2025

The Marriage at Cana - Decani

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus' first miracle at Cana in Galilee takes us out of the normal expectation of what we pray ( or wish) for as a miracle. Normally this is about a situation of great need, a problem of deep reaching significance, the health of somebody, peace amongst adversaries and healing for war torn peoples, the fulfilment of a promise, the list goes on. Few of us, I am sure, would pray that the wine at a wedding gets better as the meal progresses or does not run out. We can deal with this in human terms, it is not a priority on our horizon of needs, in fact what is true about the experience of our weddings and parties is much the same as the words of the headwaiter to the bridegroom: "Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now." (Jn 2:10) So what is this miracle all about?

The area I want us to pray through this week, is the image of a very real God who does what we might consider wasteful or foolish, by doing useless things for us - such as offering us mercy and forgiveness, which we then refuse others. Or whose gift of life and an honesty about the role of death and the hope of the Kingdom we ignore. In this miracle at Cana we find the absolute and utter generosity of God in Christ, who pulls us away from an over indulgent piety, the water into wine magic, and instead shows us the gift of giving without seeking any reward. I would suggest that most of the guests leaving the wedding do not know what has happened, the wine is drunk, a minor problem is averted. It is only the disciples, and maybe his mother and brothers who are given a glimpse of something that surrounds us all, the 'glory of the `Lord' at work, the one to whom creation bends its knee and obeys His commands.

Isn't that gentle approach of `God towards us, revealed in Christ's generous compassion at Cana, the great miracle hidden from so many today but revealed to us 'his disciples? It is a statement about the total integration of God into human existence. That is the insertion of the Holy One into every area of our lives, For as we know, and if we understand the work of Jesus a little, the '' of God is not only in 'big' events, for it shines in the dark corners of the dusty rooms of life, is found under the bed, where it shines before all who look there to find it. It is in Gaza, amidst the rubble there and in the pain of loss and injury and despair. It shines in the dark winter of Ukraine and the conflict still going on. Anywhere where two or three are gathered in the name' of Christ, the 'Shekinah', the 'Glory' of God shines and shines not only on us, but includes all those we remember and pray for. God works in an ordinary setting and does not seek anything except our response of love.

How is this miracle fulfilled today? How do we help Christ of the marriage feast turn the water of others lives into the joy of our Cana? The hiddenness of this image of God-at -work is the key. Let us take the last phrase of todays gospel and the verse that follows as a help, it states:" Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs* in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

After this, he and his mother, [his] brothers, and his disciples went down to Capernaum and stayed there only a few days." (Jn 2:11,12) This first sign of Christ is about relationships, bride and groom, guests, servants, disciples, friends, his mother, and ourselves. This is a starting point for us all, for knowing, loving, and serving God, is bound up in the love we have and show for others as well. As disciples we reveal his glory each day! We can only manage this if we take on board the tools of the Spirit, poured out on us all and listed so succinctly by St Paul. Only the Christ has them all, we can share in one or two of them, we cannot all be turners of water into wine, but we can turn hate to peace, admiration to love, kindness to great generosity, and following Christ forgiveness into great mercy. 'There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit." (I Cor: 4-7)

Perhaps as we pray for Unity in Church Unity Week, the miracle of Cana for us today, is to work for reconciliation, and try to move forward as God's people. To unite what should not be divided, that is the living waters of baptism amongst all Christians, and help all share in the new wine of the Kingdom. Perhaps it is also to keep alive the memory of events like the Holocaust, which we remember on the 27th January, in order that our human nature and temptation to power, greed, cruelty be held to account, but above all, perhaps it is as our first reading from Isaiah hints at, and as the psalm expresses it so clearly, to make creation ever new and to renew the song of life by word and deed.

" Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.
Announce his salvation, day after day."

(Ps 96:1,2)

Lectio

Prayer by Fr Robert Gibbons

Christ Jesus of the wedding feast

At Cana and in the Kingdom.

Turn the muddy waters of my life

into the new wine of heaven

and bless the vessel that I am.

That though I may be clay

I become part of your glory

The star dust of immortal life.

Amen

Psalm 96(95) Cantate Domino

O sing a new song to the Lord,

sing to the Lord all the earth.

O sing to the Lord, bless his name.

Proclaim his help day by day,

tell among the nations his glory

and his wonders among all the peoples.

The Lord is great and worthy of praise,

to be feared above all gods;

the gods of the heathens are naught.

It was the Lord who made the heavens,

his are majesty and state and power

and splendour in his holy place.

Give the Lord, you families of peoples,

give the Lord glory and power;

give the Lord the glory of his name.

Bring an offering and enter his courts,

worship the Lord in his temple.

O earth, tremble before him.

Proclaim to the nations: "God is king."

The world he made firm in its place;

he will judge the people in fairness.

Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad,

let the sea and all within it thunder praise,

let the land and all it bears rejoice,

all the trees of the wood shout for joy

at the presence of the Lord for he comes,

he comes to rule the earth.

With justice he will rule the world,

he will judge the peoples with his truth.

From a sermon of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux on the Epiphany (sermon 157)

The third mystery celebrated on this day is the marriage feast of Cana. As in His first manifestation He willed to appear in the company of His Blessed Mother, so now at the third we also find her present. Our Lord had been " invited and his disciples to the marriage."The wine failed. He had compassion on the confusion of the newly-married (St. John ii. 2, 3. couple, and at the prayer of His Mother He vouch safed to change water into wine. '' This beginning of says St. John miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee,"In His first manifestation He was made known as truly man in the arms of His Mother ; in the second as truly Son of God, from the testimony of His Eternal Father ; in the third He is proved to be truly God, at Whose command Nature's laws are re versed. These three mysteries commemorated on this day are so many proofs to confirm our faith, so many promises to strengthen our hope, so many incentives to inflame our love.

Especially at this time may we use the Nicene Creed as a reflective statement of common faith .

The Nicene Creed 325CE

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us all, and for our salvation he came down from heaven; and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and was made human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried. On the third day he rose from the dead in accordance with the scriptures. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. Who, with the Father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the Prophets.

We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and to life in the age to come.

Amen.