OMELIE / Omelie EN

20 gen 2019

20/01/2019 – 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - C

20/01/2019 – 2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - C

Octave of prayer for Unity among Christians (18-25)

Reading 1 IS 62,1-5 * Psalm 95 * Reading 2 1COR 12,4-11 * Gospel JN 2,1-12

The prophet Isaiah's words follow other pages we have heard during Christmas time, a time in which Jesus had been revealed as God's gift to the poor, the one sent by the Father in order to let the light shine upon the peoples, the king worth everyone’s adoration, the star visible from afar! He will show God's love for the people as the love of a groom for his wife: He will be everyone’s joy, of God and of men! These joyful announcements are helping us to welcome Jesus' latest manifestation, the one He will realize by Himself, the third one after those of the star to the wise men and of the Father to the people gathered around John near the river Jordan.

The occasion for this manifestation is actually provided by a wedding feast, the day celebrating the joy for love among men! We are in Cana, near Nazareth. Saint John describes the situation in a way that leaves us free to read in it many references to deeper and greater truths, exactly as it happens for every wedding.

The love growing between a man and a woman, that is meant to be forever, is compelling us to consider that love truly eternal that God pours over His people and over the entire human race! Is the people able to reciprocate it in as much an eternal way and as joyfully?

We can find the answer in the observation that Mary makes to her Son: “They have no wine”! The wine is a sign and a source of joy. The spouses “have no wine”: does it mean that they do not have joy? Joy comes from true and selfless love. Then the spouses are also without love. But which spouses are without love?

The people, described by the prophets as a bride chosen and loved by God, does not serve God any more, its groom, with love, but it serves Him in fear, like being forced to, careful to follow His commands like it was a slave. The Pharisees' teachings and the scribes' rules bring to this kind of acquiescence. Joy does not come to the people from its way to obey God. Nobody is able to give the wine of joy to this «people-bride», that is not able to be faithful because it lives like a servant, who is hoping not to be seen, so to be able to follow its whims searching for some substitute for love.

Jesus knows that true love, and therefore true indestructible joy, comes from his offering to the Father, from the wine that He will give His disciples to drink, from the blood shed on the cross. “My hour has not yet come”. Mary also knows that her Son is already a joy for us, and she shows the attendants attention to Him and obedience. To obey Jesus brings blessing, wellbeing, life, and indeed joy.

When Jesus can see close to Him obedient people, who resemble Him, - because He is obedient -, He cannot ignore them.

Therefore, we can see Him giving the servants a simple and easy order, so He is asking of them an obedience we could call blind: to bring some water to the 'chef', like it was wine to taste! The servants do not oppose it, they obey Jesus. The water from the stone water jars, that seemed only to be useful to wash hands and feet, through Jesus' word has become tasteful wine!

If, instead of obeying only externally God, you obey Him loving and listening to Jesus, you will receive life, love, serene joy and true satisfaction! If you obey God not because of fear, but out of love for Jesus, then you will have enough to present everyone with what makes life joyful, a love and a surprising peace! That of Jesus is the good wine that arrives after the poor one. The joy of the spouses’ human love is the poor wine which, in addition, is soon over. The joy coming from the obedience to Jesus is endless, it makes the spouses' life an endless feast! The joy of the obedience to Jesus lets His people, the Church, be a wife always ready to spread love, concrete love, love for all occasions, using different skills in order to serve everyone! Saint Paul in the second reading shows us in fact the Church careful to serve through the gifts it receives from the Spirit of God that moves it from inside! This Spirit is the wine with which she quenches its thirst, the wine it can offer to the whole world invited to its wedding celebration!

When we are compliant with the Holy Spirit our life is useful for the entire Church, that, unfortunately, looks like it is divided into different pieces through the sin of its men. Love for Jesus and compliance with the Spirit unite us, make us true brethren for each other, spreading the deep joy and that faith that will make us overcome the obstacle of division in order to get to a blessed unity, gift that the Father will make shine again among His children!