Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica II per Annum C
16 January 2022

A couple weeks back we observed the Epiphany, a word meaning “manifestation” or “showing.”  In the Church’s ancient practice there is actually a triple manifestation of God all rolled up into one in the solemnity of the epiphany.  Along with the visit of the Magi, the Baptism of the Lord, and the miracle at Cana help us observe this triple manifestation that God is in our midst.

A principle manifestation of God in our midst is through holy matrimony, that’s why Cana is one of the manifestations of the epiphany.  Let that sink in for a bit.  Holy Matrimony is to be a way by which God’s presence is made manifest.  Do you think of marriage that way?  Do you think of yours that way?  Yes, bringing two people with a fallen nature together can be very complicated and involves suffering, it might seem like a purgatory or even a hell on earth at times… but do you think of marriage as God does?  Jesus, the Son of God in the flesh, is right there at a celebration of married love in Cana.  It is there that he works his first miracle, thus manifesting and showing that God has come to earth and lives among us in our flesh.  In a one flesh union of a man and a woman, both made in the image and likeness of God, and open to the gift of children through total self-giving and sacrificial love, God is made manifest and shows Himself in our midst.  Do you think of marriage that way?  Do you let yourself be in God’s presence to find healing and strength to live marriage that way?  Perhaps more important, and to borrow an image from the Gospel, will you invite Jesus to be in your marriage.  The “water” of a relationship starts out fresh and satisfying but it can turn tepid, still, and even sometimes stagnant… will you invite Jesus to be in your marriage to turn the water into the wine of the Holy Spirit?

I think of the apostles who were filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and who went out to proclaim their new life in the Lord.  Recall how Acts 2:13 tells us there were naysayers who mocked this new life and who said that the apostles must have consumed too much new wine.  In the Scriptures wine can serve as an image of joy and the life of the Holy Spirit.  I think we can accept the manifestation of God’s desired presence in holy matrimony, a manifestation by his making of plentiful wine, to be an indication of how God desires to provide joy and new life in the Holy Spirit through His design for marriage.  But if holy matrimony is to be lived in a such a way that it manifests God’s presence in this world, that means it must be lived according to His design.  It cannot be lived in a secular way, or according to a worldly way of thinking, where marriage, it seems, has become more about the adults finding fulfillment and pleasure, and where “love is love” in any one of a number of modern combinations.  Marriage serves to manifest God’s presence when God Himself is permitted to be there.  That is to say, that “marriage” becomes “Holy Matrimony” when Jesus is invited to the feast.

I can’t help but notice the invitation list at the Cana wedding.  There was a wedding at Cana and the mother of Jesus was there.  And Jesus and his disciples were also invited.  I have a real simple idea following the ordering of the invitation list in this Gospel.  This is a simple idea that does not at all mean there aren’t many other ways to improve marriage or that there aren’t times when some serious triage is needed with people competent in helping navigate troubles in marriage.  But the simple Gospel lesson, based on the invitation list, is this: Will you invite Mary, and Jesus, and Jesus’ disciples to be part of your marriage?  Both husbands and wives, you gotta do this!

Grow in Marian devotion and ask our Mother’s intercession for the good of your marriage and family.  Ask her, give her permission, to do what she does in this Gospel: Dear Mother, notice where the wine of my marriage has run out and raise that deficiency to the Lord.  Dear Mother, implore with your Son to provide new wine.  Invite Jesus into your marriage.  Are you living your marriage in a godly way, such that the Lord would even recognize it as the instrument by which he shows himself?  If you live marriage as the pagans do, making it about yourself, avoiding sacrifice, seeking pleasure, lust, artificially refusing children, thinking it more about the fulfillment of the adults… well, then, Jesus doesn’t have an invitation to your marriage.  Make sure that changes.  There may be past choices you can’t undo in your marriage.  I’m not condemning.  You can still repent and issue a new invitation to the Lord.  And then place yourself in his presence especially at Mass, and in prayer with the Scriptures.  How about adoration in our chapel, even as a couple where possible, to be with the Lord to give him an invitation?  To let him be who he desires to be for you, namely the one who turns water into wine.  Finally, invite Jesus’ disciples to be part of what enriches your marriage.  Jesus’ disciples were there at Cana.  What I think that teaches us is the value of having strong friendships among other fellow disciples who might inspire us and who might assist us when it seems like we are running out of wine.  Make relationships, and the important accountability that can happen among disciples, a source of strength in your marriage.

I want to attach to this Gospel an announcement I had hoped to make a year ago, before we were dealing with much smaller attendance and the after-effects of COVID lockdown.  We are still rebuilding from that time but we are doing well, even though sadly there are still plenty of faces from the past who don’t quite seem to be back with us.  We have been quietly piloting for two years now a new marriage preparation method for the parish.  It is one that involves placing engaged couples with a mentor couple.  The program is called Witness to Love and the materials we provide give both the mentor couple and the engaged couple solidly Catholic resources needed for good marriage preparation over the six months we have for preparation.  What results is good preparation for the engaged couple and the added blessing of a time for marriage enrichment for the already-married couple.  Think about it, if someone asks you to be a mentor you have a concrete reason to finally give attention to your relationship.  The reason I am announcing this publicly is because any married couple in the parish can be asked to serve as a mentor couple.  There are very few pre-requisites.  The mentor couple must be in a valid sacramental marriage.  They must be active parishioners in this parish.  They have to be married at least five years.  They should not be related to the engaged couple.  That’s it!  You might be surprised to hear that you could be eligible and asked to be a mentor couple.  The Witness to Love resources we provide give you the solid content that is needed to help guide someone else’s marriage preparation.  Your own living of marriage, no matter how you might evaluate your own marriage, gives you a wealth of experience that can enrich an engaged couple.  Thus, with this announcement, I hope you won’t be surprised if an engaged couple asks you to serve as their mentor.  I hope you will be willing to help, to say yes.  You’ll have help from the parish and you’ll know that an engaged couple sees something admirable in your marriage and something they want to emulate.

God’s covenant with his people is described in Scripture, as it was in today’s first reading, as a marriage.  At a wedding party, Jesus manifested his divine presence and performed his first miracle.  Let’s give him permission to be in our marriages so they have the blessing of wine, that is the joy of the Holy Spirit, and so that married love can reveal God’s glory and bring disciples to believe in the Lord!