Second Sunday in Course 2025
Just last Sunday we heard from Isaiah that the Messiah would not cry out or mistreat the wounded. That surely describes Jesus. Today we hear from Isaiah, “For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her vindication goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.” This is from a late chapter of the prophet, where the prophetic word is looking forward to the final day of vindication of those who believe. The nation of faith will even be called by a “new name.” God gives men and women or whole nations a new name when there has been a definitive divine action that makes a fundamental change in human history. So the Lord, while making a covenant with Abram, changed his name to Abraham and his wife’s name to Sarah. When dealing with Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, God changed his name to “Israel,” meaning God-fighter. So there will be a new covenant between God’s people and their Lord, one that is given meaning and reality every time we commemorate the action of Jesus the night before He suffered and died for us. He gave the cup of wine to His disciples and called it by a new name: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” And He told us to do exactly as He did in memory of Himself.
The promise of God given through Isaiah is even stronger: “You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My delight is in her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” The covenant between God and His people Israel is emphasized many times in the prophetic books, and it is frequently seen as a kind of marriage ceremony.
Lamentably, prophets like Hosea and Jeremiah had to remind the Israelites that they had broken the marriage covenant. The prophets even used the strongest language, in calling the people a “whore” because they worshiped false gods, not the True God. They even worshiped these demon gods with human sacrifice, especially by murdering their young children in so-called “religious ceremonies.”
How does this new covenant Church build a community and society that is characterized by right conduct and right worship? Jesus, during His earthly ministry, reminded them of the moral code. He insisted on obedience to the moral law written on the hearts of even non-believers. We know that as the Ten Commandments, three for loving God and seven for loving neighbor. He went even further. He taught us to love even our enemies, and to love others all the way to giving up our lives for their welfare. This we would also do in memory and imitation of Jesus.
But we would not have to engage in right worship and right living without help. Jesus promised and then delivered the ultimate aid: the Holy Spirit. God’s spirit, given in baptism (and really with every sacramental encounter) empowers us to act wisely and powerfully. St. Paul, in his message to the Corinthian church, tells us that every one of us has gifts from the Holy Spirit. Some gifts are a bit spectacular, like the faith that moves mountains, or gifts of healing diseases. Others, like discernment of spirits, are less dramatic. But we all are given them freely by Our Lord. Not every one has every gift, but what we have must be used to build up our local communities in faith and love.
Now let’s discuss this wedding feast at Cana in light of what we’ve looked at so far today.
Jesus and His mother came to Cana with the new disciples who were following Jesus. They had heard His teaching and knew He was a new kind of prophet, who taught with authority and drove out some demons. But here was a public gathering. Probably all of Cana and surrounding territory had sent friends to the nuptials. St. John, in writing this down decades after it happened, may have had some humor in mind when he wrote “Jesus was invited and brought His disciples and they ran out of wine.” Mary, mother of Jesus, who knew exactly who Jesus was and what He could do, brought Him the problem. Jesus calls her “Woman.” Now when my mother was alive and she brought a situation to me, if I answered her with these words, I don’t want to imaging what mom would have said or done. But Mary knew that being called “Woman” by her son was not a kind of “dissing mom.” Not disrespectful at all—just the opposite. Jesus was identifying Mary as the Woman of the New Covenant, like the Woman, Eve, was the one inaugurating the Old Covenant. The Fathers of the Church knew that just as Adam’s Eve started off the world’s cycles of sin, the Woman Mary, with her “yes” to the angel initiated the wondrous events that gave us her Son, Jesus, for the conquest of sin. Mary was able and even enthusiastic about God’s request because of a special grace given to her early in life. That’s why her prayer says “My soul magnifies the Lord,” and goes on to declare all the good things God has done.
At Cana, both Mary and Jesus knew that if Jesus intervened to fix the problem of the empty wineskins, as He did on her request, doing such a sign reminiscent of the prophets’ predictions about God’s redemptive action would start them both down the road to Calvary. The architect of the feast (that’s the word John used!) tasted the water-made-wine and exclaimed: “you have kept the best wine until now.” Divine wine, we might say. I’ve seen some estimates of these many gallons of wine (those jars for purifying water were huge) as being worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in today’s currency. God does not scrimp when it comes to the gifts of grace.
Our response must be to find our gifts of grace, among the ones St. Paul listed or among other, even more pedestrian ones, and to offer service to our community. In that way, we can build up the Church and attract people who are desperate for a touch of the healing, empowering hand of Christ.
