Ordinary 2

The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 96; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-11

A festive wedding, thirsty guests and an abundance of wine. All the makings for a good time, I’d say. And in the center of it all, Jesus. We never think of Jesus as a partier, do we?

I wonder. How much did Jesus enjoy wine? What about dancing? Dancing is an integral part of life and culture throughout the Middle East; men linked hand in hand dance together in a line to the sound of drums with moves that would put any contemporary break dancer to shame. Was Jesus the leader of such a dance that day at Cana?

Many of us I expect would probably be embarrassed by an experience of the authentic Jesus. On the other hand, many of us might be quite grateful to see confirmed by Jesus a joyous moment in human life.

The church often spiritualizes the events in the Gospel distancing Jesus from our very real and messy humanity. Jesus once attended a wedding feast, and I expect many other such festive gatherings that mark the transitions of human life. Events filled with wine, dancing, gladness and joy. Does this not open a window for us into the heart of God? Does not God love to hear the laughter of people celebrating people?

Throughout his life, the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, celebrated people – people getting married, people being healed of disease and infirmity, children playing on his lap, people being reunited in the face of death, people fishing, baking and farming out of which his stories emerged, people experiencing wholeness through repentance, people enjoying meals together.

Do you think that a religion that is too holy to experience happiness is what God desires? There are Catholics who don’t believe we should applaud or laugh in church even on appropriate occasions. It’s undignified before God. Is it?

A God whom Black spirituals picture as a mammy kneeling in the mud along a river creating humanity out of mud. A God who delights playing with Wisdom. A God who created the platypus, moose and giraffe must have a sense of humour. A God whose presence causes ordinary water to blush into rich, choice, wine is a God who enjoys creation and humanity.

The experience of the wedding feast at Cana is a sign that the church is to rejoice and celebrate the goodness that occurs in people’s lives wherever it is found. For all goodness is from God.

After two years of this pandemic with no end in the immediate sight and experiencing ‘pandemic fatigue’, we might feel like those empty stone jars, useless and frustrated. Today as the Church seems to still grasp onto the mystery of Christmas, we need to be reminded Jesus commanded, “Fill the jars with water”. Not only does Jesus want our lives full but transformed even in the face of a stressful situation as is this pandemic.

Might there not have been an undignified smirk on the face of Jesus as he watched the headwaiter taste the water changing into wine on his tongue? The party is saved. The newlyweds are not embarrassed. Mother is appeased. And no one is the wiser.  It is in a stressful human situation that the disciples began to believe in Jesus.

Do we not yearn and hunger to gather for a party without any barriers, masks or fear? A party with dancing and laughter, gladness and joy, and great abandon? Might it be that the church’s life presently is somewhere in the middle of the wedding feast at Cana story where there is motherly concern, anxiousness, and questions.

Yet unbeknownst to us something is happening in the background that we are not as yet aware. What we do know is that Jesus is in the center dancing, kibitzing and drinking because there are people to celebrate, happiness to be experienced, the seeds of faith to be scattered, and a miracle that will transform our lives is just around the corner. Where in this stressful time do you encounter the presence of Jesus? …because God loves people celebrating people and the Son of God was – is a partier!