Fr. Charlie’s Homily – 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – January 16, 2022 – 8:00 am

Rather interesting miracle today, you would think if they’d finished the wine supply, they were all pretty happy already, Jesus comes along and makes another 150 gallon, I think, of better wine.

And as we read in John’s gospel, there’s so many layers. Then, to understand what’s going on today, we need to think as far as the final moment in the Bible when he talks about the revelation of the wedding feast of the lamb, that this became an image – going back even to Isaiah today. Did you notice how that came forth, that’s why they connected that reading. But Isaiah was written over 150 years. And the first writer was always telling the people “if you don’t change your ways, Jerusalem will be destroyed and will be in exile.” Which is what happened.

Then, the second Isaiah is the one who is in exile and says, “well the day is coming when we will all return to Jerusalem, have the opportunity to return to Jerusalem, that sign of hope.

And then they have what they call a third Isaiah, which is more like a vision. That their time is coming, God is coming. And when he does, no longer will we be desolate, or alone, or abandoned. But we will be, and the word he used, if you notice today, is espoused, we will be married. And that’s what I think John is about today.

When we read the scriptures…I studied Greek for quite a few years, but there’s only phrase that I remember by memory and that’s the one about “ti a moi kai soi gyna”. And, translated “what’s that to you and me, woman.” Now if I said that to my mother, I’d be picking myself up off the floor, you know. And the point in John’s gospel, is we need to connect that, he says, “it’s not yet my hour.” We need to connect that to the hour, because at the foot of the cross, that’s the only other time he refers, “woman, behold your son; son, behold your mother.” So, we see in that moment on the cross, where Jesus sides…this is John’s gospel, the water and the blood signify baptism and eucharist, in the context of that meal. That it is in the blood of Christ, it is in the blood of Christ that we are espoused, we are married, there’s that kind, that’s the closest thing we can come on this earth to understand what this intimacy that God desires with us.

So, we are challenged in this day and time to build that communion. That’s what it’s based on. That Jesus on the cross, dying, giving himself totally to the other is this key to achieving the vision of Isaiah, and what that wedding feast of the lamb is all about. And, more and more than ever in this day and time, we need to build people, bring people together.

Paul was having that issue in the Corinthian community. Everybody was boasting of their gift. I am preaching; I am a teacher. The one they probably felt was the most was glossolalia where they were speaking in tongues – that was pretty prominent around after Vatican II – the charismatic movement – you had more and more gatherings where people were speaking in tongues. And Paul kind of puts that at the bottom of the list, it’s not showing that you were special, that you were privileged by the Holy Spirit. He says, because glossolalia doesn’t really serve the community like the teaching and the preaching and the serving of one another. But all of those gifts, each person’s gift, is to be brought to the community and used not for the self, but to build the community.

That’s what we need, not only in our church today, but in our world. This is the part of Christianity that Jesus came to unveil for us in his dying on that cross, and the part that is not so much taught or preached in Christianity these days. And if it were, I’ve got to think, that we would be much more ready to be able to serve one another; to say, ‘no, I don’t want to seek out that which divides us; I want to seek out that which we share in common, and to build on that.'   

And that would be my encouragement for us today. I, was it last week, or it was at weekday Mass, I was watching NPR news in which they were featuring a group called ‘Bridges.’ And what they do is they find two people who are on opposite sides of the political divide; they get them together, talk to each other, all of a sudden, they find something that they have in common that they can talk about.

And we need to bring that reconciliation; we need to bring people together in God’s love. If his love, if his truth is that which guides us, we’re all gonna be together. But when we write up our own truth; create our own version, this is when the evil gets in there and splits us apart.

So at this eucharist, this moment of Jesus’ hour, when he calls us to this wedding feast, we seek to deepen that bond, that’s espoused of God, that marital bond we have, in love with God, and hopefully through the power and the gift of that grace, to bring that love into the world.