ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Second Sunday of Epiphany, 2007

Fr Ivan Aquilina

Today we stand in front of the final panel of a most wonderful triptych. A week ago we focused on the first panel which shows Jesus being worshipped by the three wise men as wise men worship God. In front of the second panel we focused on the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan where God the Father and the Holy Spirit bear witness to the Son. Today we focus on the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Let us see what this living image tells us.

The opening words of this event are full of hidden meaning. We start with “the third day” denoting the fullness of time, the perfect time, the time of restoration. The author is saying that now is the fullness of time in which all the promises are fulfilled. A door is being opened.

This fullness of time happens within the context of a marriage feast. In the time of Jesus a marriage feast was eight days long. This stands for the period of creation to denote re-creation. It was a week in which all lived together in harmony, peace and joy while food and wine overflowed. By the time of Jesus it was long established that the wedding feast was the symbol of the kingdom of God, the recovery of the lost paradise. This theme we have been made familiar with in our first reading from Isaiah, a sacred text bursting with the joyful hope that Israel will be redeemed bringing about what a marriage feast stands for: new life.

The marriage feast is about the new order of creation; in this order disorder creeps in once more: the wine has run out. This is a symbol of sin, of the real human poverty when one gives nothing to others. In front of this tragedy enters the new Eve, the mother of all the redeemed and intercedes with her Son. Mary moves Jesus to centre stage and Jesus introduces the concept of the “hour”. He shows that all his life is an alignment and a journey towards this “hour” where redemption will be freely and abundantly given, where the son of man will give everything that he has for those who seek salvation. The “hour” in which Jesus and Mary, the New Adam and the New Eve, will be next to each other again. The hour that will restore order once and for all.

There are jars at hand for purification; disorder needs to be purified. Water the symbol of life is thrown in these jars and simple instructions are given. Obedience from the servants and patience from Jesus lead to trust. The servants take what they believed to be water to their boss. Trust is key here. It is not only the servants who trust in Jesus but above all Mary who gives us that most important piece of advice ever: “Do whatever he tells you.” It is this trust and obedience to Christ that restores disorder and brings order, the new order, the new wine which turns upside down the worldly order represented by the astonishment of the experienced steward at keeping the best wine for last.

The new wine are those who have gone through the waters of baptism and with Mary and the household of Faith trust and obey the Lord. This is the Church in which the new creation subsists. It is the Church talked about by Blessed Paul in our first reading, the Redeemed Israel built and equipped by the Spirit not by human hands, one living body with one mind, the mind of Christ living in complete trust and obedience to God while both delight in each other.

This triptych in front of which we stand depicts our story. The more we look into it the more faces will become familiar; we are also guests at this marriage feast of the Lamb who was slain. This marriage feast and sacred banquet is experienced in every Mass. When we listen to Jesus and obey him than we are joining him as he turns poverty into riches, sadness into joy, disorder into order. He will make of us the new wine of joy, a new creation, the living sign through which he may manifest his glory; and others will come to believe in him. If only we do whatever he tells us.