ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Sermon High Mass, Epiphany III, Year B.

Fr Ivan Aquilina

The writer of the fourth gospel, generally known as John, is a passageway. He is a passageway between the Jewish Faith and the first Christian Community. The whole point of the Gospel of John is to present Christ, the eternal Word of God, as God from God in whom God is totally revealed. God is revealed in Christ in a Jewish context as John was seeing and witnessing to this from his own background. The difference between John and the other three Gospels known as the synoptic Gospels is this: John was very much into the Jewish Rabbinic Mystical movement, a Jewish mystic who recognised in Christ the full revelation of God. Matthew, Mark and Luke are down to earth devout Jews who recognised in Jesus the fulfilment of all the promises made to their people. John is a mystic, and as all mystics his eye constantly pierces that cloud of unknowing. That is why the symbol of John is an eagle, like the eagle he soars very high. As a mystic, all his writings are very different from the others; the words he uses point beyond their ordinary meaning to a higher plane of understanding and presence. It is in this light that his writings fall in place and therefore it is also in this mystic background that the event of the wedding feast in Cana can be fully understood.

I will limit myself to some of the key phrases. Let’s start with a phrase and a word that are closely related, “On the third day” and “hour”.

The gospels were never intended to be a sort of historical diary of the life of Jesus, this counts especially for John. The community of John saw Jesus from after the Resurrection. In the whole of the Johannine writings Jesus is the risen Lord and he speaks and acts as such. So the introduction to this miracle puts us directly out of space and time, the third day connects us to Easter Sunday and the number three to a perfect and divine order. The third day also links us to Mount Sinai, the Law being given to Moses on the third day. The first three words already show us the importance of the event: God is going to reveal Himself. The word “hour” points to the same direction. In John the hour of Jesus is the passion, death, burial and resurrection: in this event that fullness of revelation will be anticipated and will tell us more about the death of Our Lord and its purpose. The hour is that moment when the new family of Jesus is established, the birth of the Church, the redeemed people that walks joyfully through life to God.

The next couple of words are “steward of the feast” and “bridegroom”. The steward of the feast was also the ruler or governor of the feast. He was in charge of all the proceedings; the feast was entrusted to him. It is strange than that apparently he did not notice the shortage of wine and not even the source of the new wine. He is so near to the miracle and yet he is so far, it might be that he allowed himself to think about more peripheral things. Here this steward represents the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were the rulers and stewards of the faith of Abraham, so near to the Word of God, so near to Jesus but yet so far. They were interested in the periphery; they did not know what they were doing. This accompanies Jesus in his hour on the cross and hence he prays: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. How easy it is for those so near to the Mystery to loose sight of what is central, how careful we must be with our gift of Faith.
The bridegroom is an important image for mystics, see the Song of Songs. Many of the Church Fathers see in this bridegroom Jesus in the wedding feast with his bride, the Church - the community of believers, referred to in the last verse of this gospel, the Church which in this hour is established. The bridegroom is silent and just accepts the wonderment of the steward, maybe wondering himself why he is not asking for his eyes to be opened.

The last couple of words are “Marriage” and “wine”. The Jewish wedding takes a whole week. The entire village would take part. No one is excluded. The glory of God, the first of these signs, is revealed in a context of joy. This represents beautifully the Messianic time. The Messiah will bring about a permanent order of serenity and joy so that all time shall be like a wedding feast. This is what we are called for, our faith places us in the eternal wedding feast where Christ is the bridegroom and we the bride, the joy deriving from these two giving themselves totally to each other.

“Wine”. Water represents poverty, wine richness. Captives were given water whilst kings feast on wine. The ordinary – water, is transformed into the rare – wine. Our human ordinary condition is taken up into the life of God. The symbol of living – water, is changed into the symbol of the kingdom of God – wine. In that water of Cana all of us are transformed. Wine that gladdens the heart, the drink of the chosen and elect is offered for us all in abundance, it changes us and calls us to change others from glory into glory, from the glory of humanity to the glory of the Divine.

What a great feast for us in this gospel; what a greater feast awaits us upon the altar of the Lamb.

The last reflection must be about the dialogue between Jesus and his glorious mother. She discovers the need of the people of God and she intercedes. The answer she gets is very blunt, sounds like: “Mother, get real, do not hope for the impossible. This is not my mission.” If we hear this for the first time our human condition would expect an answer on the lines of is this the way you treat your mother, or what happened to honour thy father and they mother. Mary acts differently, she comes out of long years of pondering these mysteries in her heart. Her response is absolute faith and trust in him. “Do whatever he tells you” God is helpless in front of such faith and trust, he gives in, the need is catered for, the hour is anticipated, the Church is born. See what lessons Blessed Mary gives us, to trust and believe even when it is very bleak!

In faith we are the Church the bride of Christ, in love we live the hour, in trust we move in joy, together, not in the sin of disunity. We already have a glimpse of the eternal Marriage Banquet in every Mass we celebrate. If we do what he tells us we shall get there; in joy!