2nd Sunday Ordinary Time (C) 19 January 2025 God’s covenant with us
We know the sort of things they say in love songs: I would swim any ocean, climb any mountain to be with you …
It’s just as well that such sacrifices are not usually required, but we sense in such words the workings of love, as they begin with God.
In the first reading we have God promising blessings on His ‘bride’, which means us. First it was Israel, then the Church, then individual souls. As the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you cf Is 62, 1-5)
God has abundant, infinite love and He makes it available to us.
If it is a marriage, He brings everything. He makes the promises and keeps them. We make the same promises as He does, only we need His help to do even that much.
In the book of Hosea, we see the extent of Gods faithfulness. He will take back an adulterous wife, and repeatedly so.
For our part we are that wife as far as our response to God goes. When we sin, we are offending against God, like an unfaithful bride.
We can set things right with true repentance. God will always accept us as we return.
That his first miracle took place at a weeding, we can see that marriage is an important part of Gods dealings with us. If He is marrying us, we see that as the groom He will have abundant blessings for the bride. The quality and quantity of the wine tell us this much.
This is God’s way – we dare to ask Him for more than we can even think of (Ep 3,20)
At Cana, and many other times He does more than we would ask or expect.
They asked for healing and received forgiveness as well. Healing of soul as well as body.
They grieved for death; He restored to life. Widow’s son; Lazarus
They needed food; He multiplied it in abundance.
And now they need wine, and another multiplication.
Jesus wants us to approach Him with the same confidence.
We put all our prayers before Him continuously. We will not get them all answered, but we will get many of them. And the Church will grow in confidence and become more daring in what it asks.
The marriage covenant is being repaired and restored.
This abundance is available to everyone all the time.
We are tempted to a kind of cynicism whereby we doubt that anything can be that good.
Jesus’ emphatic miracle at Cana says that it can be that good. Somehow, we come to believe Him.
We learn to grow in love and trust for God and become able to make changes in our lives as required.
Cana was just the beginning, we could say - the beginning of many more miracles, and the beginning of a more vigorous demonstration of God’s power and goodness.
The adulterous wife can become faithful. We might take it for granted, so accustomed are we to hearing of God’s mercy. But the story is about us; we are forgiven and invited to take up our side of the marriage with God. It is not just something we receive, but something we become - faithful.
Our Lady says it all: Do whatever He tells you. And not just once.
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