Readings: Is 62:1-5; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Jn 2:1-11
In the first reading, we hear something astounding: “As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall you God rejoice in you.” These words were spoken of Zion and Jerusalem, but the astounding part of this is that God is saying He will marry them. Although the text of Isaiah says: “The Lord delights in you and makes your land his spouse” it should be quite evident that it is not possible to make the actual land, stone and dirt, one’s spouse.
It certainly draws attention to the special privilege Israel enjoyed in being the Chosen People, but it extends much farther than Israel and applies to every baptized person. We recall that when we were baptized we entered into a covenant with God, a covenant spoken of many times in the Gospels as a marriage. This is why our Lord’s first miracle, as recorded for us in the Gospel reading today, was performed at a wedding.
It calls attention to the fact that Jesus is the divine Bridegroom and the Church is the bride. The Church is made up of many members who are together the Mystical Person of Jesus and the bride of Christ. This means you and I, as persons baptized into Jesus, have become the spouse of the Lord. While this will be revealed in its fullness only in Heaven, it is a reality that is already happening in each of us.
When our Blessed Lady approached Jesus to inform Him of the shortage of wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus responded that His hour had not yet come. This points forward to the time of the crucifixion, which is our Lord’s hour and the hour when He consummated His union with the Church.
We notice immediately the quantity of water that our Lord turns into wine: between 120-180 gallons! Weddings in Galilee at the time of our Lord were not a ceremony and a reception as we are accustomed; rather, a wedding lasted for a week. If a large number of people were present, it would require a huge amount of wine. However, the fact that the wine had run out suggests that this was probably several days into the celebration, so the enormous amount would not have been necessary.
Instead, what we need to see in this is the great generosity of the Lord. He does not give a little bit, but He gives all to His Bride. Beyond that, we are told that this was the best wine. The fact that the home where the wedding was taking place had six water jars suggests that this is a very well-to-do family. I mention this only to point out that there was probably some very good wine served at the wedding, but what our Lord provided was clearly far better.
Jesus is God Who has done exactly what He said He would do and has entered into a marriage covenant with each of us. As we have seen, He gives Himself to each of us entirely, seen most clearly in the Holy Eucharist which is the entire Person of our Lord. This means His gift to us in infinite, but being finite, we are not able to fully comprehend this gift.
As it is in a sacramental marriage, the two persons give themselves to one another. For the rest of their lives each of the spouses should delve deeper and deeper into the mystery of the person he or she married. Since the marriage of a man and a woman is reflective of the union of Christ and His Church, this implies that we, as the spouse of the Lord, should delve deeper and deeper into the mystery of His Person. Because He is infinite we will never come to the end, but this means we can continue to grow in love for Him as we unite ourselves with Him on that deeper level.
For the moment, we will see only aspects of what our Lord has given us. St. Paul lists some of those in the second reading where the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the benefit of all. In other words, the Church contains and reveals all of the gifts of the Spirit, but each of us in our limited nature will only manifest these gifts partially. The deeper we go, the more will be manifest through us.
The important thing for us is not which gifts we have or what is manifest, because we have received the Gift, Jesus, in His fullness. He will manifest Himself in us as He wills. Our task is to give ourselves entirely to Him, to enter more deeply into Him, and to love Him more and more each day.
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
