Wedding at Cana – 2nd Sunday
In Ordinary Time Year C
In today’s Gospel passage, we see three
characteristics of Mary that we can meditate on – her motherhood, her
prayerfulness, and her willingness to act.
A good mother anticipates the needs of
her children and family before others realize a possible problem, challenge,
change of direction, or obstacle up ahead. The innate sense of a mother
is profound and this gift is given to mothers by God in order to be a
protector, a person of sensibility, great awareness, and practical. Mary,
therefore, realizes, anticipates the problem of the wine running short and goes
to Jesus to see if He can do anything about it. Jesus can do something
about it and He does. But that is not the point of this reflection, the
point here is that Mary knew He could.
Mary’s motherhood is seen when she pays
attention to the needs of the newlyweds at Cana, noticing when they have run
out of wine for their guests. The wine is a sign of “happiness, love, and
plenty,” and that many families and people today have also run out of “wine”
due to loneliness, unemployment, illness, and other difficulties.
Being sensitive to the needs of others
is something that is really lacking in our lives these days. The secular
influence of “I, me and myself” has become more and more prevalent, even in the
church. Many people see only their own needs and do not want to think further.
During my novitiate, my novice master
tells us constantly to be sensitive to the needs of others and try to
anticipate their needs. This is indeed something that is not easy to do but
that does not mean we should give up trying. It is even more important when we
are involved in ministry. I strongly believe that ministry is not a place where
we come just to spend our Sundays or to just socialize and catch up on gossip.
Ministry should be a place where we can
openly and honestly share our struggles, our joys, a place we can call a second
home. All of us have different challenges in life, different needs but the one
common thing is that we need to be loved and appreciated. And this is where the
need to be sensitive to the needs of others comes in. The question is, are we
willing to try to anticipate the needs of others and paying attention to them
instead of hogging all the limelight?
Secondly, Mary exhibits prayerfulness
when she “approaches Jesus with confidence” to make known the newlyweds’
problem to Him. The family, and ministry in our case, is a school of prayer
where people are reminded that they do not live in isolation but must be
concerned about the well-being of loved ones around them. In the family, “we
are one and we have a neighbor close at hand.”
We are all familiar with prayer. Whether
it is a set prayer formula, the Rosary, Novena etc, we become so accustomed to
prayer that sometimes it becomes a routine and mechanical. Even for religious,
our hours of prayer can become mechanical and routine. We end up reciting these
prayers without even thinking or reflecting on their deeper meaning. On the
other hand, we have the situation where we only pray when we encounter difficulties
or when we need something from God. God becomes like a vending machine for us.
But prayer is much deeper than that. We come as the Legion of Mary Sunday after
Sunday and pray together but are we really praying? What is our intention when
we pray? St Teresa of Avila would describe prayer as a conversation between
friends, do we treat our prayer that way, confident like Mary, that Jesus would
hear our prayer?
The most important thing is for us to
approach God confidently in our prayers but whether he chooses to answer is up
to him. I believe that God answers prayers in 4 ways; a “yes’ and nothing ese,
in other words, you get what you asked for and nothing else, a “yes and here is
so much more”, he gives us more than what we need, an outright “no” and the
last way “no, not now” Whatever it is, we must always be faithful to our
prayers no matter what the answer is.
Finally, Mary’s willingness to act is
seen as she turns to the servants at the wedding feast and tells them to follow
Jesus’ commands. Mary’s words are also directed at us; we should do what Jesus
tells us, that is, give our lives in the service of love. We must always
remember that the family is a place where people can serve one another in love.
All in the family deserve this love; “no one is rejected; everyone is worth the
same.”
Action is the fruit of prayer, without
action, prayer is empty. Action can take many forms, not necessarily physical
in nature. For example, a change of heart towards greater virtue, a conscious
desire not to say harsh or unkind words etc. Prayer does not change God,
rather, it changes us to be more receptive of God’s will and to become a better
person. Are we truly willing to do what Jesus tells us? In reality many people
practice the “pick and choose to my liking” mentality. We pray for God’s will
and yet sometimes we do what is contrary.
We need to constantly ask ourselves
whether we are bearing the fruits of prayer. Our very lives, the way we live
will bear witness to that fruit. We do not see or hear much about Mary in the
Gospels, but from what we do hear and read, she is continually reflecting on
the word of God. It was by this continuous reflection that she was able to
carry on serving God.
Let us then continue to be aware of
these 3 characteristics, being sensitive to others, prayerfulness and
willingness to act and to put it into practice. With God’s grace we can
continue to be God’s instrument wherever we are.