Franciscan Friar Fr. Paul Gallagher reflects on the Gospel readings for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. How have such things as attending events, attire, gifts, and social interaction affected your family relationships?
The content is edited by Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Anne Marie Lom and Joe Thiel. The excerpts from the Sunday readings are prepared by Joe Thiel. To read or download the complete pdf with excerpts for your prayer, please click here: Franciscan Gospel Reflection January 19 2025 Excerpts are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Photo: Permission is granted from St. Thomas Catholic Community, Newton Wisconsin. Pastor is Fr. Dave Beaudry. Find Jesus here in this Holy Year. Photographer Sister Concepcion Medina
John 2:1-11
There was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom 1and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.
Background:
Typically, during this liturgical year, the Gospel text will be from Luke’s Gospel. However, this Sunday the Church reads from John’s Gospel. The text describes Jesus’ first miracle, at a wedding feast in Cana.
Scripture scholars believe that John had a source of Jesus’ miracle stories that he drew upon to write his Gospel. That source was originally used to help convince Greek-speaking Jews that Jesus was the long-awaited messiah. But after the fall of the temple in Jerusalem, the Christian community was facing the struggle of being blamed for Rome’s actions against the Jewish community and the destruction of their temple. As a result, the Christians were no longer welcome at the temple. Thus, many of the early Christian Jews were keeping their belief in Jesus a secret, so that they could still worship at the temple and also maintain their relationships with their Jewish neighbors and family. There were those be believed that those Jewish Christians should admit to being followers of Jesus and members of the Christian community.
John’s Gospel is rich with symbolic images. The last sentence of today’s Gospel states that this was the first of Jesus’ signs. There are seven signs in John’s Gospel; each one points beyond the event itself to a deeper understanding of Jesus’ significance. The last and greatest sign was to be his death and resurrection.
Another way that John links this event with the death and resurrection is through Jesus’ reference to his “hour” in verse 4. Throughout John’s Gospel, “the hour” is used as the hour of Jesus’ death and resurrection. (2:4, 4:21, 5:25, 5:28, 7:30, 8:20, 12:23, 12:27, 13:1, 16:4, 16:21, 16:25, 16:32, 17:1, and 19:27)
In the Hebrew Scripture, the wedding banquet itself is a rich symbol for the final fulfillment of God’s relationship with the chosen people. Within this tradition, God is often described as the bridegroom. At the typical wedding feast, large water jars were on hand so the guests could perform purification rituals. Jesus asks that the jars be filled with water and taken to the headwaiter. The water had been transformed into the finest of wines. At the Last Supper, Jesus will take the wine and transform it into his own blood, which will be poured out on the cross in the purest of sacrifices.
In John’s Gospel, Mary is never named. Jesus’ response to his mother as “woman” may sound harsh or even disrespectful. The Gospel is written in a different culture when young men were typically trying to find their independence from their mothers. This would be particularly true in public situations like the one described at the wedding feast. John’s Gospel may in part be expressing a mother and her son trying to navigate new roles as adults within their culture.
On yet another level, the text also demonstrates Jesus seeking to place his first priority on fulfilling the will of his heavenly Father. At the same time, the text also portrays Mary and Jesus responding to one another and their host, who risks public shame for not adequately providing wine for the celebration.
Reflection Questions:
- How do you feel about attending large extended social events, like a multi-day wedding celebration?
- How have such things as attending events, attire, gifts, and social interaction affected your family relationships?
- Read the text slowly. What are some things that stand out to you as you read the text?
- What do you think Jesus was thinking as he witnessed Mary going over to address the servants?
- It must have taken a good amount of time for the servants to go get water from a well and fill six large jars with water. What do you think was the mood of Mary, Jesus, the servants, and the guests as word spread that they were out of wine?
- Have you ever felt like God was saying to you, “How does your concern affect me?”
- What does this first miracle of Jesus say to you about what kind of God Jesus has come to reveal? In the end, what are God’s priorities, and God’s desires?
- Can you take some time now to talk to God about Jesus’ relationship to his mother, to the host of the wedding, and to the couple, and the importance of family and relationships?
- What is important for you and your relationship with God?
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