2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 - Cana Epiphanies

 Two weeks ago, on the Feast of the Epiphany, the babe at Bethlehem was revealed to be the Son of God and savior of the world. What an epiphany: Jesus is revealed as God in the flesh come to earth to save and redeem all people of all nations of all time.

Last Week, we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord.  The voice of the Father proclaimed Jesus to be his beloved Son, with whom He is well pleased and the Holy Spirit in the bodily form of the dove was seen, revealing Jesus as Christ.  What an epiphany—Jesus is revealed as what…as the second person of the holy Trinity, beloved by the Father, anointed by the Spirit for the work of salvation.

Today, we heard in our Gospel another epiphany, a set of epiphanies, really! The Gospel of the wedding feast of Cana contains epiphanies about Jesus, epiphanies about his Blessed Mother, and it even reveals something about us and the response God wants from us all, of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Firstly, what does the Gospel reveal about Jesus? At the Wedding at Cana, Jesus is revealed to be the divine bridegroom. And you might say, Jesus wasn’t getting married, how is he the Bridegroom. Well, at a Jewish wedding, it was the responsibility of the bridegroom to provide the wine. We can see this to be true, even in the text, for when the headwaiter tastes the wine, he immediately calls the bridegroom, assuming that he was the one who procured the vintage.

But, in this story, it was Jesus who provided the wine. By taking on the bridegroom’s responsibility to provide the wine, and doing so in a spectacular style, miraculously changing 120-180 gallons of water into the finest vintage, Jesus reveals himself as the Divine Bridegroom, who provides the wine of salvation for his bride, the Church.  

This epiphany was hinted at in our first reading. Isiah prophesied about how God himself would take us as his spouse: “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.” 

In joining the Church to himself, through his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has united himself to humanity as Bridegroom to his Bride in a union of love.

And that Jesus revealed himself as a Bridegroom through a miracle of changing water into wine, is also significant. Wine, drunk at a wedding brings joy to the hearts of those who imbibe in it. So too, those who join the church, are able to rejoice at being united to God through Baptism, and most especially, receiving Holy Communion with God through the Sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood, the Eucharist.

What an epiphany! Jesus is the Bridegroom who unites himself to us, through Sacramental bonds, that we may live in joy. 

The second epiphany at the wedding at Cana is regarding Jesus’ mother, something that also gladdens our hearts. 

You can imagine how embarrassing it would be today if, at a wedding reception, the banquet hall ran out of food or beverage.  Even though most people would sympathize with the couple and blame the banquet facility, it would still be embarrassing. Well, in the ancient world, it would be incalculably more so, because the family threw the wedding party. If they ran out of supplies, especially with days to go for the duration of the wedding celebration, it would be an embarrassment that likely would never be forgotten.

Well, who noticed first that the family had run out of wine? Jesus’ mother. Mary noticed the impending catastrophe before anyone else, even the mother of the bride and even the wine steward.  Mary’s love made her notice details that others were missing.  To remedy the problem, she went to her son.  She didn’t twist his arm.  She simply said, “they have no wine!” confident that her Son would miraculously intervene even though his “hour” had not yet come.

What’s the epiphany? Mary is involved in the gritty details of our lives, and she is at work before we even know we have a problem. Our Lady is looking down on all of us right now with maternal love, bringing our needs to Christ, even the ones we are not aware of, the needs we might even be ashamed to acknowledge—praying that we may have the strength and patience and humility, to bear our crosses in union with Christ.  Mary brings our trials, our heartaches, our challenges, our vices and sins to God, so that we may obtain the wine of grace we need to endure and overcome them.

Mary’s role in the Church reveals something about God too. God has placed Mary in this role of heavenly helper and intercessor. God has chosen her and thereby God wants us to have a relationship with her, trusting Mary, entrusting ourselves to her, bringing our needs to her. God formed the Church as a family with the greatest mother in all existence. 

And there is the epiphany about us as well: God has formed us into a family, united us through Jesus in Word and Sacrament, having Mary as mother. And  we are joined with each other for a purpose.

In the second reading today, St. Paul reflects on the variety of spiritual gifts…gifts of healing, mighty deeds, prophecy, discernment, varieties of tongues. Gifts given to glorify God and spread the Gospel. All these gifts are given to help us serve God. But notice, St. Paul says that none of us have received all of these gifts. Meaning, we are to work together, using our unique gifts, to serve God. We aren’t meant to do it on our own. Perhaps, this season, you’d do well to consider how God is calling you to work together with a brother or sister in Christ, in service to God—that all people of all places may come to drink the wine of salvation.

While the extraordinary seasons of Advent and Christmas have come to an end, our Ordinary Time scripture readings help us to realize the extraordinary nature of being members of the church, being loved by God, joyfully gifted with a variety of blessings, and spiritual helpers, the blessed Mother, our patron saints, our guardian angels  for the work of the Gospel. 

When we are faithful to our mission— Epiphanies of Christ’s goodness and power and love are made known in us and through us, in how we treat people, in the people we serve, and forgive, and witness to, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Saturday before Ash Wednesday 2022 - Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners

On this final Saturday of Septuagesima, on the verge of the penitential season of Lent, I’d like to consider briefly one of the titles of Our Lady from the Litany of Loreto: Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners.

This title of Our Lady inspires confidence in us who are in need of God's mercy. As St. Louis Marie de Montfort says: "If we fear to go directly to Jesus Christ, our God, whether because of His infinite greatness, or because of our vileness, or because of our sins, let us boldly implore the aid and intercession of Mary, our Mother. She is good, She is tender, She has nothing in Her austere and forbidding, nothing too sublime and too brilliant. In seeing Her, we see our pure nature. She is not the sun, which by the brightness of its rays blinds us because of our weakness; but She is fair and gentle as the moon (Cant. 6:9), which receives the light of the sun, and tempers it to make it more suitable to our capacity" 

And yet, we know that God is merciful and full of compassion, so when we turn to Our Lady with that consoling title, "Refuge of Sinners," we see in Her one who loves the lost sheep, as God loves them. Our Lady loves us because God loves us. And she intercedes continually that not one of us may be lost. She is our refuge, our advocate, because God wants us to come to Him through Her, since every grace He gives us is given through Her hands. 

The tender arms of Our Lady are opened to all of us poor sinners, so much that St. Bonaventure said that "Mary embraces with motherly love even such a sinner as is despised by all the world, and ceases not to embrace him until he is reconciled with his Judge." 

As the members of the Church acknowledge our sins this Lent, we turn to our Lady, seeking refuge in the folds of her mantle, where we plead with our Mother to teach us how to repent well, to be reconciled well with God, to be open to the conversion God desires for us. 

Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, pray for us, that we may become worthy of the promises of Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

6th Sunday of Easter 2019 - Anxiety and the Gift of Peace

Scripture speaks often of God’s desire to give his people “peace”. Psalm 85 says that God promises peace to his people. Psalm 29 says, “The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.” Paul tells the Galatians that the fruits of the Spirit are “love, joy, goodness, faithfulness, and peace” Isaiah prophecies that the Messiah will be called “Wonder-Counselor and Prince of Peace”

The Peace which the Lord exhibited in his earthly ministry must have been profoundly attractive to his people. You can tell when people are filled with the peace of God. The holiest people I’ve met have been the most peaceful—peace surrounds them like cloak. I think the opposite is also true; most of us have met people that seem surrounded by a cloud of distress, bitterness, unhappiness; drama and chaos and division follow them everywhere. Perhaps, you’ve met someone who has allowed grief to turn into anger at the world or anger at God and that anger just exudes from them. Christians, rather, should be known by their peace. We are called to be peacebearers and peacemakers.

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” What powerful words, especially when we know, all too well, how anxiety, fear, anger, worry can have such a negative effect upon our lives.

We worry or are angry about the economy, about our jobs, our families, our kids and spouses, our Church and our parish, our government, our country, the environment. Anxities and resentments can have serious repercussions on our physical and mental health, resulting in headaches, irritability, muscular aches and pains, gastrointestinal issues, depression, difficulty in concentrating, both extreme fatigue and sleeplessness, just to name a few symptoms.

And many people turn to compulsive behaviors to cope with their anxiety: overindulgence in alcohol, drugs, promiscuity or pornography, excessive eating and shopping. Anything to give some semblance of control.

Anxiety and restlessness can be a sign that things are out of balance. God designed the human person in such a way that we experience anxiety, some restlessness, when our lives are out of balance. Anxiety can be a sign that we need to make some changes to our Diet, exercise, and sleep schedule, that we need to spending more quality time with family and friends. Serious compulsions and serious anxiety is likely a sign that we need to speak with a counselor.

Yes, anxiety and restlessness can be signs that something is out of balance and needs to be changed about our physical and mental habits. They can also be a sign that something needs to be changed or improved about our spiritual habits. As St. Augustine said so rightly, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” If we aren’t experiencing the peace we think we should, in our spiritual life, we do well to examine what might need to change.

The peace that God wants for us might come from personal changes, it will likely come through other people, working on relationships, and peace will certainly through prayer and the sacraments. One well-known Catholic psychologist said that 5 minutes in the confessional is worth a month of therapy. The honesty of admitting one’s failures in the confessional and acknowledging that God is the source of peace and strength for the future, has a powerful therapeutic effect, not to mention the spiritual cleansing we receive through sacramental absolution.

Boredom, too, is likely a sign that spiritual changes need to be made. I often tell the kids over in the school that boredom is either a sign that they need to get up and do something physical, or it’s a sign that they need to spend more time in prayer. Likely, it’s a sign of both.

Boredom, anxiety, anger, fear, worry, these are signs that we need to go to a quiet place and open ourselves to the gift of peace that Jesus promises in our gospel today. Now some people confuse prayer and worry. Prayer is not simply over-ideating on your problems. Going over and over your worries in your head is not prayer. Rather, prayer requires entrusting our worries to God, asking God to help us identify what we can do about them, and letting him take care of the rest. As they say in AA, let go and let God. Peace comes through faith: yes, it comes from doing what we can, praying hard, working hard, but finally, we need to entrust our needs to God.

St. Padre Pio, the great Italian stigmatist from the last century, is said to have received many letters from around the world. Thousands of letters every day. And these letters, as you guessed it, were filled with people’s problems, needs, and worries. And, it’s said that he would often write back the same thing in every response. He’d write, “work hard, do your best, pray hard, and don’t worry.” Work hard, do your best, pray hard, and don’t worry.

In thinking about worry and anxiety, I can’t help but think, as well, of our mothers who we celebrated two weeks ago on Mother’s day. Not as the cause of our anxieties…mostly…but as the remedy. Who here hasn’t brought a worry or anxiety to your mother? Mothers sort of absorb the worries and anxieties of her children. We no doubt have many mothers here who have taken their own children’s worries and anxieties and needs upon themselves, who have brought their children’s anxieties, in their hearts, to the altar today. And something happens in the mother’s heart, doesn’t it, problems are transformed, sometimes wisdom is discovered, peace is given.

On this final Sunday of the Month of May, I invite all of you to deepen and strengthen your relationship to our Mother in Heaven, Our Lady. She is called Our Lady of Sorrows, because she takes our sorrows and the sorrows of the world to God for us. She is Our Lady Perpetual Help because she is always there, always concerned for each one of us. She is Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, because we can always find peace and protection in her care. As Mediatrix of Grace she is the channel through which God’s peace is offered to us.

So, bring your needs, your worries and woes, your stresses to Mother Mary every day. In the moment of fear, in the moment of anger, in the moment of temptation, call upon Mother Mary. She will always help us find and know the gift of peace, given to us by Her Son, Our Lord. No Doubt, Mary’s presence brought peace to Jesus Himself throughout his own sufferings. We know Mary comforted Jesus on the way of the cross, we know she stood by him as he suffered crucifixion and died. Jesus gave Mary to us as our own Mother, and we do well, to allow her to do a mother’s job in our own life, to be that powerful source of peace in our needs and troubles.

Please know that as I embark on pilgrimage this week, I bring all of your needs, worries, anxieties, and petitions with me, and pray that the Lord may continue to bless us with his gift of peace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.