January 19, 2025

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-11

Here’s a prayer that we can use as we go through life: Lord, give me coffee to help me change the things I can change, chocolate to help me get over the things I cannot change, and wine to help me understand the difference. Now I’m not so sure that wine will actually help you understand things, but it certainly helps one feel better about one’s decisions once we’ve made them. Of course, too much wine or any other alcoholic beverage will actually result in making poor decisions. Too much coffee and chocolate are also harmful to one’s health. But wine has always been seen as a part of any celebration, both now and in the day of Jesus. A moderate amount to be sure, as we all condemn, as did the bible, drunkenness and overuse. Having said that – and as the child of an alcoholic father I think it is important that we do say that – wine is one of those things that is seen as a part of the finer things in life, that help us to enjoy life. And this helps us take a lesson from today’s Gospel.

Jesus is at a feast, the wedding of friends of the family. Had they run out of wine, it would have been an embarrassment to the couple and their families as well as a signal that the celebration was at an end. Jesus throughout his earthly ministry is seen in table fellowship with those to whom he associates, so much so in fact that he is accused of associating with sinners. His enemies even falsely accuse him of eating and drinking too much [Luke 7:34, Matthew 11:19]. Jesus of course did not do that, but neither was he a person who was so prim and proper or aloof that he refused to enjoy the company of his friends, his disciples, and those who could be his disciples, including even some Pharisees.

Father George Smiga made an acute observation in a homily on this Gospel. He noted that the jars that were used in this miracle were the ones that had held the water for purification. Jewish people at the time of Jesus and even today are required to perform ritual washings before doing certain things, including eating a meal. So these jars had already been used in performing the work of obeying the law of Moses for those in attendance at the wedding. But now Jesus uses them to turn water into wine, using them to help celebrate now that the work of purification had been complete. In other words, the water from the jars represents our responsibilities, doing what is required of us to do, and the wine represents the celebration that we earn after we complete our responsibilities. This miracle can be seen as showing both the work of life and the recreation that is earned by the work.

This is an important lesson as we start our new year. This year and every year we will hear many readings that talk about the work of God, our role in bringing on the Kingdom of God, this year mostly but not exclusively from Luke. But we must not become too puritanical, focusing on the work and responsibilities that we take on as Christians. And make no mistake about it, Christ asks a lot of us. But we will also read some Gospels that speak of the great blessings that we receive, and especially the psalms will speak of the glorious banquet that God has in store for us, both in this life and the next. We will talk about both water and wine, both work and play, both responsibility and reward. And God made us such that both are important.

Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard Professor who studies the science behind what makes people happy, describes in the 2023 book Build the Life You Want three things which feed our happiness in life. These are enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose. The third item, purpose, is important, since God made us for a reason, and this will come up many times in other Gospel readings. However, the other two, enjoyment and satisfaction, are the same things we just discussed in the Gospel today, the wine and the water, reward and responsibility.

Dr. Brooks describes enjoyment as the ability to appreciate the people and things around us. It is not just pleasure – that is an animal reaction after satisfying a biological urge. Enjoyment for a human requires communion and consciousness: communion is being with others and sharing pleasure with them, and consciousness is the memories shared and created by the experience. It is being in the moment with others and appreciating what one has and not focusing on what could have been. It is the wine of life.

The other ingredient that Dr. Brooks mentions is satisfaction, which is the joy that we receive when we accomplish something which we have worked hard for. It requires at least a little bit of struggle and sacrifice since completing an easy task or cheating on a test won’t give true satisfaction. This is confirmation of the old adage that hard work is its own reward: it contributes to our sense of happiness, or as the book of Proverbs says, “In all labor there is profit” [Proverbs 14:23a NABRE]. The problem with satisfaction is that it doesn’t last. It is temporary, and the feeling of satisfaction will fade over time. And so we strive on. And so we have the water in life.

The story of the wine at the wedding in Cana is the story of our lives. Christ asks a lot of us in his teachings, and those of us who accepted him as our Lord and Savior at our baptism work hard to accomplish the things that he challenged us to do. But just as Genesis tells us that there are six days of work and one day of rest, so Christ also, after our work building the Kingdom of God, wants us to celebrate our lives as Christians, just as he celebrated the wedding of a friend and intervened with a miracle to ensure that the celebration was not cut short. The jars that contained the water which allowed the work of complying with the law of Moses became the jars that helped those that complied with God’s law to then celebrate. So too we are encouraged by this Gospel to make sure we strike a balance in our lives. Some people celebrate too much, others not enough. This Gospel doesn’t help us with setting the right balance between the two but does tell us, in the end, both are necessary. The one who doesn't contribute enough doesn't earn the satisfaction of contributing to the community and the one who never celebrates never gets the pleasure of enjoying the fruit of their labor with their friends and family. We people of faith believe that we too, after we try to do the will of God as we see it and is taught by the Church, will see the great celebration that will happen at the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God, that our water will indeed turn into wine.

As we now turn to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the remembrance of the passion that leads to our salvation, we celebrate the memorial of that great event yet again. Let it bring us both the enjoyment of a communal celebration with our fellow Christians and the satisfaction in the graces we receive as we carry on Christ’s work here on earth. Let us always take satisfaction from our work and joy from the worship of our great God. May there always be water and wine in our lives.