Sunday, January 15, 2012
2nd Sunday after Epiphany
My dear faithful:
In the past week since last Sunday, we make a jump in the Gospel story
of 18 years. Last week’s
Gospel told the tale of the Christ Child, twelve years old, remaining
behind in Jerusalem, being lost and then found by his parents,
conversing with the elders in the temple, being about “his father’s
business.” The Gospel ended
by setting the scene for the raising of the Christ Child in Nazareth,
where, we are told, he was subject to Saints Mary and Joseph.
From this idyllic picture of family life, we travel in time during the
last few days for a period of 18 years.
The young child grows up.
At some point his foster father St. Joseph passes on into
eternity, and then on Friday, the octave day of the Epiphany we
celebrate the Baptism of Christ, now a young man of 30.
It is the beginning of Christ’s three years of ministry, during
which he taught us by his parables, his actions, his miracles.
But before Christ began his public life of ministry, there was something
he wanted to do first. And
so, when he and his Mother were invited to a wedding feast at Cana, he
had no intention of performing his first miracle, and starting his
public ministry with the dramatic and miraculous changing of the water
into wine. What was it that
he wanted to do first? We’ll
not know that until we are in heaven.
All we know is that his hour had “not yet come”.
And this, then, is the greatest drama of today’s Gospel.
Not that he changed water into wine—this was nothing to the
almighty Word of God who had created an entire universe out of nothing.
No, the great drama today is that this almighty God changed his
plan at the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary his Mother.
With this in mind, we should never hesitate to ask her to intercede for
us at the feet of her Son.
He can refuse her nothing that she asks.
And so we ask for her help.
And “never was it known”, says the prayer, the Memorare, “that
anyone who fled to her protection, who sought her help, or sought her
intercession, was left unaided.”
Today’s Gospel begins with the words:
“There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the Mother of Jesus
was there.” Last week you
celebrated your own wedding anniversary here, and today, we celebrate
another wedding. A very
special wedding. Note that the
Gospel does not tell us WHO is getting married.
This is because they stand for all future Christian brides and
bridegrooms, for this, my dear people, was the very first wedding on
which Lord was to bestow the graces of a sacrament.
Yes, this wedding at Cana was the first marriage to be a
sacrament. “And the Mother
of Jesus was there.”
How important is it therefore, that you invite the Mother of Jesus into
your own homes. That you
make her a permanent guest here amongst your family.
The name of Mary should never be far from your lips, and the
thought of her loving care should never be far from your minds.
Remember Father Peyton whom I mentioned last week, that the
Family that prays together stays together.
Pray the Rosary—Our Lady’s Rose Garden.
Say the 150 Hail Marys of the Rosary together each week, calling
on her to help you, poor banished children of Eve, in this vale of
tears.
Some days are happy, some are sad.
Sometimes we are joyful, at other times we are sorrowful.
The Rosary reflects these different moods and circumstances of
our life, with its joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries.
Let the life of Our Lady and her Divine Son enter into your life,
let them both be guests in your home as you gather together in prayer.
They should not be strangers but welcome friends, so that when
the time comes for you to ask a favour of Our Lady, she will bestow a
sweet smile on your prayer, and remind her Son that you have “no wine”,
or whatever plight you happen to be in.
And Our Lord, even though he may have been planning something
altogether different for you, will do as she asks and grant the favour
you so badly need.
And so, inspired by this confidence, as the Memorare reminds us, “we fly
unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, our mother.”
It is not enough to drag our feet slowly to prayer.
To reluctantly give up a few minutes of our day to mutter through
a few tired old incantations, without thought, or even worse, with our
thoughts on our own distracted life, with its fears and pleasures.
No, we must FLY to the Virgin of virgins, our Mother.
Invite her as a guest into your home, and then come before her
presence with joy, inspired by the confidence that she will intercede
for us to her Son, and that he will grant her the favours she asks.
Stand before her, sinful and sorrowful.
She is the Mother of the Word Incarnate, and she will not despise
your petitions, but in her mercy she will hear and answer you.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen