Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Just for a minute or two, let’s imagine what it must have been like to be a waiter at the Wedding at Cana.  At first everything seems to be going fine, and everyone seems to be having a good time – maybe even too good a time, because long before the party is supposed to end we notice that we’re running out of wine. 

So we elect the most senior member of our group to tell the headwaiter, who’s understandably angry at first, but then calmly pulls the father of the bride aside and whispers the bad news – somehow there simply isn’t enough wine for the rest of the evening. 

Before too long word has spread and the newlyweds are getting more and more embarrassed, especially because among the guests there is this preacher named Jesus that everyone has been buzzing about. He’s been teaching and baptizing nearby and drawing huge crowds.  He’s here with his fishermen disciples and some of us wonder if they’re the reason we’ve run out of wine so quickly!

We notice that this woman goes over and whispers something to this Jesus character, and that He doesn’t look particularly pleased, like maybe she’s being too meddlesome or something.  Then, as we watch them from the kitchen, she turns towards us, marches right over and says enigmatically: “Do whatever He tells you.”

Minutes later, Jesus Himself walks our way and tells us to fill the large washing jugs with water and then bring them to the headwaiter.  We look at each other incredulously.  Is this guy crazy?  If He had told us where we could buy or borrow more wine that would have made some sense. But how are giant jugs of water possibly going to help the situation?

It just seems silly, foolish even, and what’s more it’s a heck of a lot of work!  A couple of our number refuse to be bothered, but the rest of us do it anyway, pulling about 150 gallons of water from the well and then lugging the jugs all the way back to the reception.  When we bring a cup of the water to the headwaiter we brace for another explosion, but somehow he’s pleased. He pulls the groom aside and announces, “You have kept the good wine until now!”

Then we take another look inside the jugs and realize what’s happened, and we wonder all the more who this Jesus really is that He can turn water into wine.  But there’s not much time to think through that as everyone is back to drinking and dancing and having a great time …

Okay, so why did I ask that we spend some time thinking about what the waiters heard, saw, did and felt at the Wedding at Cana.  Because as we celebrated a few weeks ago on January 1^st Mary isn’t just Jesus’ Mother, She is also our Mother, and the Mother of the Church.  Mary doesn’t speak many words in the Gospels but when She does you better believe that they’re important.

It’s worth thinking of ourselves as the waiters in this story because what Mary said to those waiters She is, in fact, saying to Christians in every time and place: “Do whatever He tells you.”  Do whatever my Son tells you to do because I know who He is and I know the power that He has.  Do whatever He tells you because, like the good wine He made at Cana, He has come to give you an abundance of life and joy even more wonderful than anything you could have planned or imagined for yourself.

Okay, so how do we know what Jesus is telling us to do so that we can in fact do it and be blessed with the life and joy He came to give?  Well, for starters, we could read Scripture to see how Jesus Himself acted towards others and we could strive to do as He did.  It might have become a cliché, but those wristbands from years ago that asked, “What would Jesus do?” they really weren’t a bad place start.

Of course we can also turn to prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to subtly show us what it is that Jesus wants us to do, and to give us the strength to do it.  And we can always ask spiritual directors and trusted family and friends to help us discern what Jesus is telling us to do in a given situation.

But if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll recognize that if these were the only ways of knowing what Jesus was telling us to do, we would easily be capable of convincing ourselves that almost anything we wanted to do was actually what Jesus wanted. 

We have certainly all come to recognize in our own lives and in the world around us how easily we humans can rationalize and justify our own decisions however ill-conceived or even evil they may be.   

So perhaps, in seeking to know what it is that Jesus wants us to do, it is most important that we recognize how Jesus gave us the Church so that we might always remain in Him and know what it is He wants us to do. 

The Church isn’t merely a Jesus fan club.  The Church is the Bride of Christ – one with Him, His very Body present with us until the end of time, built upon the rock of Peter’s confession and protected by His promise from the gates of Hell. 

The Church provides its teaching, on any number of topics, not for its own amusement, or to maintain some kind of power and control over us, but solely so that we might know and do what Jesus is telling us to do, that we might have the life and joy Jesus longs to give us.

But often times we don’t believe that. There are many times when we hear Jesus telling us to do something through His Body the Church and we decide that it seems merely silly or foolish, or that it is too hard, or too much work.  We are sure that we know better – like some of the waiters I described – and we simply refuse to listen to Mary’s instruction, and refuse to do whatever He has told us to do, because doing what He tells us might involve … being trusting and trustworthy in a highly cynical and deceitful culture … it might mean living simply and generously in a highly material culture that worships wealth and rewards greed …

… it might require forgiving someone we’d rather judge and blame, or truly loving someone we’d rather ignore … it might mean living chastely in a hyper-sexualized and promiscuous society … or it might require us to make any number of other sacrifices, or forgo some other pleasure … no matter what it asks of us, it certainly  involves the surrender of our egos and our sense of always being in control.

But today’s Gospel makes clear, whatever Jesus tells us to do, however weird or foolish it might seem to this world, however difficult or burdensome it might feel at first, He only ever tells us to do those things that will bring us to life, love, joy, fullness, peace, and freedom.

Brothers and sisters, in this Eucharist, we pray that we will have the faith and trust that our Blessed Mother asks of us – that we might “do whatever He tells” us – so that both in this life, and in the world to come, we might taste the good wine that Christ the Bridegroom has saved for last.