2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, January 20,
2013
Epistle Romans 12: 6-16 Gospel, John
2: 1-11
Scriptures
have no meaning unless we understand that Christ is in all the Scriptures, both
the Old and New Testaments. Our Lord said as much when, just before He ascended
to Heaven, he told His Apostles in Luke
24:44, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you,
that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses,
and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.”
The Law that the Jews lived under began
to speak at the beginning of the world.
And God’s Law continues to speak from the beginning to the sixth age of
creation, which is the period we are in today. These ages of creation were
taught by St. Augustine, and the first age is reckoned from Adam to Noah, and
the great destruction of the flood. The second age is from Noah to Abraham, our
Patriarch. The third is from Abraham to David, king and prophet. The fourth from David to the
transmigration into Babylon, into slavery. The fifth is from then until John
the Baptist and Jesus. The sixth age is from Jesus until the end of the
world. So the six water jars at the wedding
feast in Cana signify the six ages of the world. In each age there were
prophesies of the Christ. All the prophesies have now been fulfilled, and so
today’s Gospel tells us the water jars are “filled to the brim.” We can easily understand now that Christ has
kept the good wine, that is to say, the Gospel, until the last, the sixth age
of the world.
The Gospel continues: “And the wine
failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine.” The wine
provided at the wedding was all consumed. In a religious sense, however, the
wine referred to by Mary was not a simple drink, but the nuptial wine of the
Holy Spirit, Who inspired the Prophets. This “wine of the Holy Spirit” was gone
because the prophets, except St. John the Baptist, had now ceased to speak and
minister to the people of Israel. Their role ended with the appearance of
Jesus. The Gentiles also had no one to give them spiritual drink, but Jesus was
there that day to fill new bottles with new wine. “For the old things,” St.
Paul tells us, “have passed away: behold all things are made new.” (2 Corinthians 5: 17)
Each
year God makes wine from water and grapes on the vine, but this miracle of
nature loses its wonder through its yearly repetition. So at Cana God used an
unaccustomed means to rouse men to the worship of Himself, and this is the
reason at the end of today’s Gospel reading that St. John added the words “and
manifested his glory”. Following this he wrote: “and his disciples believed in
him,” because after seeing what Jesus did at Cana, they were obliged to believe
in Him and to pay more attention to everything He said and did.
If pride is the beginning of all sin as Ecclesiasticus 10: 15 tells us, how could our pride be healed if God Himself had
not shown us how by becoming lowly? Let us be humble because the Son of God became
humble. God was hungry, He was tired. He was beaten and spit upon and put to
death. Why such humiliation? Because only the Son of God could offer Himself as
the Perfect, Holy and Unspotted Sacrifice to His Father in reparation for Adam
and Eve’s original sin. And that is why
Jesus gave His priests the power to change bread and wine into His Body and
Blood – to continue this Perfect Sacrifice at every Mass.
When
the priest makes the offering after washing his hands he prays, “Receive, O
holy Trinity, this oblation offered up by us to Thee in memory of the passion,
resurrection, and ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ . . .” Then at the
beginning of the Canon of the Mass he prays, “Wherefore, we humbly pray
and beseech Thee . . . to receive and to bless these gifts, these presents,
these holy unspotted sacrifices . . .” Following this, at the Hanc Igitur, he again
prays, “Wherefore, we beseech Thee, O
Lord, graciously to receive this oblation which we . . . offer up to Thee . . .”
And then, just prior to the Consecration, the priest prays, “And do Thou, O God, vouchsafe in all respects
to bless, consecrate, and approve this our oblation, to perfect it and to
render it well-pleasing to Thyself, so that it may become for us the body and
blood of Thy most beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here today, and at every
Mass, we continue to offer to God the
Perfect Sacrifice in this unbloody recreation of the Passion and Death of our
Lord.
Jesus
Christ became lowly to show us the way to eternal life, if only we will walk
that path. Throughout the coming week,
live a life of prayer. Fast, even if you
give up only one dessert for Christ’s sake. Visit and pray for the sick. Pray
for the souls in Purgatory. Then come to
Mass again next Sunday to receive a small taste of heaven, the Body and Blood
of Our Lord Jesus Christ. +++
We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass
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