Our first reading describes God's covenant with his people through a marital metaphor, in which God is the bridegroom and the people are the bride. Isaiah says: “No more shall people call you ‘Forsaken,’ or your land ‘Desolate,’ but you shall be called ‘My Delight.’”
This is truly an amazing way of thinking. Our creator, the one who built the cosmos, the one who fashioned each of us, wants to enter into the most loving and intimate relationship with us. Isaiah says that as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, God rejoices over us! Us? With all our flaws and imperfections our creator wants to unite with us, marry us, just as we are. Even when we feel desolate and forsaken, God promises to be united to us as a bride and bridegroom are united and become one.
Our gospel today is the story of the wedding feast at Cana. At this wedding, everything seemed to go well until Mary noticed that they would soon be running out of wine. Running out of wine was no minor problem. In those days, wedding banquets went on for days, and wine was the key to lifting the spirits of the people. Wine symbolizes the grace and joy God gives us which lifts us and our spirits. Running out of wine is like running out of grace or running out of joy. Mary quietly approaches Jesus and tells him, “They are running out of wine.” In saying this, Mary gives expression to the holy longing of people for the Divine Life. Then she turns to the servants and utters the last words she speaks in the scriptures: “Do whatever he tells you.” This is the key to opening ourselves to the Divine Life.
Jesus told the servants to fill jars to the brim with water—not half-way, but FULL! Jesus wants our full cooperation and wants us to bring ALL that we are and have and hand it to Christ. When we do this, God takes all that we offer and transforms our water into God’s wine (grace) which is the Divine Life.
My ministry has been mainly with the disabled. In Macau, I started a sheltered workshop where people who are deaf or have physical disabilities can learn skills, so they could work in our workshop or in an industry. As I think of Jesus changing water into wine, I’m reminded of A-Mui, one of the workers at our workshop. She came to our center as a shy, physically disabled young lady with a very low self-image. She, like most of the people at our center, had only ever been considered “useless” by the outside world, because the only thing that people saw in her was her disability. A-Mui gave herself fully to the training program, and in time became a skilled seamstress. But more importantly, during her time with us, she learned about Jesus and experienced His love for her just as she was. Father Greg Boyle says: “When you receive the tender glance of God’s Love, you then choose to be the tender glance of God’s Love in the world.” As A-Mui grew in her faith, she discovered that when she offered herself to God, God who transformed water into wine, God transformed her into a lovely self-confident young lady, a dedicated worker who takes great pride in her work, and someone who radiates a JOY she never thought possible. The joy you see in her face now is present because she KNOWS that God loves her totally—just as she is. When she decided to be baptized, she chose "Fatima" as her baptismal name.
The last words Mary said in the gospel were: “Do whatever he tells you.” For Fatima, “do whatever Jesus tells you” means seeing as God sees and loving as God loves. Seeing with eyes of Love transformed her into a joyful person. This is the joy that longs to awaken within our hearts as we “do whatever Jesus tells us,” and see as God sees with eyes of Love. This opens us, and ultimately our world, to reconciliation and peace.
Photo of Fatima, in Macau, China, by the author.