MY CONTINUING LENTEN MESSAGE

Firstly, thank you Father Ting for being a part of this inter-action on the Gospels and the lessons we read them into our daily lives.  Pip had hoped for this…and he’s getting his hopes answered.

Jesus’ first miracle was perhaps the strangest of all. He never repeated anything quite like it, and the miracle seemed to take Jesus by surprise as much as anyone else.

At the age of thirty or so, Jesus showed up at a wedding with his newly formed band of disciples.  His Mother came, too, probably accompanied by other members of the family.  In the village life of Galilee, a wedding brought a celebration into an otherwise drab existence. The bridegroom and his men made a gala procession through the streets to fetch the bride’s party by torchlight, then, everyone rushed to the groom’s house for a feast worthy of royalty.

Let’s join them.

Imagine the buffet table laden with food, the guests all making merry, and then, the wine ran out.  Parang, naubusan ng drinks…

As emergencies go, this one falls well down the list.  it caused embarrassment, for sure, but did it need the Son of God to concern Himself with a social faux pas?

“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied to His mother when His mother mentioned the problem.  “My time has not yet come.”

We can only guess what went through Jesus’ mind during those next few seconds as He weighed Mary’s request. If He acted, that means His time HAD come, and from that moment on, life would change.  If word of His power leaked out, pleas from needy people from Tyre to Jerusalem would soon pressure Him.

But the request came from His mother.

“Fill the jars with water,” He told the servants. Those jars were at the doors of the house and were by the incoming guests to wash themselves — feet and hands — before entering the party. And miraculously, the water was changed to wine — the best wine, the choice wine…which should have usually been served at the beginning of the banquet.

What can we learn from this odd incident?

The miracle of changing water into wine, a one-time event, occurred in an obscure town whose location archeologists of today cannot even agree on.

Eventually, the miracles of physical healing captured the most attention in the Gospels. But this one captures my attention.

The lesson I read is, the cleansing ends, and the celebration begins…

We enter the season of Lent with the reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return.  Do we really think about this when we wake up each day?  One day at a time, one act of worship for twenty-four hours, one measure of love shared before the end of a day, one thought offered to God….that is all we need to do.

Lent should be our season of cleansing….

More, next time, much love and prayers…