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OMELIE / Omelie EN

16 gen 2022
16/01/2022 – 2nd Sunday in O. T. - C

16/01/2022 – 2nd Sunday in O. T. - C

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

The Lord delights in you and makes your land his spouse”. These are Isaiah’s words, a prophecy of novelty and joy. The people which is suffering will stand tall again, consoled, renewed: it will have the certainty and the proof that it is loved by its God and blessed in every aspect of its life. “As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you”: these are sentences which make you dance for joy, a prophecy that is fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah. He is the “bridegroom” promised, he who makes the beatitude of God’s people true, who opens an age of joy and peace. And today’s gospel is talking about exactly this age of joy.

The opportunity is given by the wedding feast. The spouses, whose wedding Jesus is invited to with the Mother and the few disciples who are already following Him, seen missing. Why? The true marital union, which you should be happy for, is God’s with the people. This is the feast which gives Jesus the opportunity to show Himself as the one who is fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy. The true bridegroom, for whom not only the town of Cana is rejoicing but the whole world, is Him, God’s Son and the Messiah. Only His mother knows Him and recognises Him. Not even His disciples, who have just started following Him, are aware of His most true and deep identity. As God’s bride, in the Scriptures, is always mentioned the people of Israel: it is though a people which is afraid of God, which is not serving Him lovingly, which is not rejoicing in His presence, which is not treasuring His words, which has almost forgotten about Him. The way in which the people is treating God reminds us of the behaviour of a unfaithful bride who is looking elsewhere for her satisfaction and who is giving others her caresses. This is the source of the sadness and lack of hope overcoming the people: a sad, joyless people because it is not aware that it is loved and it can give love.

In Cana, the first word heard is Mary’s, the Mother. She has realised that the wine is missing from the tables of the guests. Is wine really so important? In a wedding feast the wine is source of joy, blessings to the life of the spouses. By saying that there is no wine, Mary is highlighting the lack of joy in the relationship between men and their God.

We understand the mother’s observation. It is the whole people which is lacking joy, exactly because it does not live in the love its marital relationship with God. Mary is certainly more aware of this aspect than of the missing wine on the table. Jesus understands it. By saying that “my hour has not yet come”, He is saying that the time for Him to give His life for the “bride” has yet to come, for the people. This is not the “hour” of His wedding, which is going to be instead that of His passion and death. By offering the new wine, taken from the jars which were holding the water for cleaning and purifying, He makes clear that our relationship with God will not be external, but it will soak into our most intimate part: then it will produce joy, communion, true and continuous celebration.

Jesus is the true groom who loves and kindles in us true love for the Father, source of true joy. We join the disciples in order to believe in Him, to build on Him our faith in the God of love, who (2nd reading) is covering His bride in gifts and services, like jewels which make her beautiful and attractive. She is attracting men’s looks on herself in order to turn them all towards Him, Jesus, who keeps giving the true wine of consolation and joy of heart. And every man who will join the Son of God, the Bridegroom, will become himself a sign of the Father’s love, as the Apostle is assuring us: “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit”.

In this day, Jesus makes people drink the water which is not water anymore, transformed from the water set aside for purification into a drink which is quenching the desire of communion of men. So He completes God’s epiphany, the manifestation of God’s love for the whole world: He has started it by showing Himself to the shepherds, then to the wise men, to the sinners while getting out of the waters of the Jordan, and now He completes it by giving joy to the wedding between the people and its God.