Second Sunday of the Year B (20 Jan 2019)
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
Transforming Gift
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Before mass:
Christian mysteries invite us to ponder them repeatedly. God joining humanity is the mystery of Incarnation.
God’s self-revelation as born in history we pondered as Nativity;
God’s self-revelation as light for all people we pondered as Epiphany;
God’s self-revelation loving us into holiness we pondered as Jesus’ Baptism;
Ancient tradition, alive in the Eastern church, fused the wedding at Cana with God’s self-revelation. The lectionary selection of the wedding at Cana allows us to join our early roots today..
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John began his gospel with In the beginning was the Word. The phrase links us to the universe of the creating Word as Genesis opened. John identified Jesus as God’s Word who creates; his gospel recounts God transforming creation in Jesus.
Genesis recounted the Creator acting with pur-pose day by day—1st day, 2nd day.… John casually dated the outset of his gospel—the next day, the next day, the next day. With disciples around him Jesus attended a wedding at Cana. It was no casual event! Jesus changed water into wine, and the gospel recalled the wedding at Cana happened on the third day. Two things about it.
To run out of wine at a wedding celebration wounded the dignity of the bride and groom and their families. Jesus’ miracle rescued their dignity and allowed everyone to take pleasure at their marriage. We cannot help recalling Jesus’ miracle of transforming wine into his life-blood for our benefit. On the third day reminds us only risen Jesus does this. His resurrection transforms all.
Someone may object: things are still the same; many human hearts appear cold; the world is in a sad way. Transforming is not the same as trans-formed. Transforming suggests living process. Think of our bodies: they have changed from the time we slept to when we awoke then poured our morning beverage to now. Our skin constant-ly sheds its cells and renews them. Inside us is more mind-blowing: some 100 million new red blood cells are being formed in our bodies every minute!1
Although our bodies are constantly transform-ing our identities continue; we recognize our-selves and others recognize us. Yet deep within us a gift unfolds: Prophet Isaiah used images of vindication and God delighting in us, marrying us. A divine gift unfolds in us because we do not vindicate ourselves: God desires us as we are so God may transform us to live as God creates us each moment. God never forces. Christian transformation happens only with our consent: do we want what God wants?
As our messiah and savior, Jesus transforms us from people with no future to people whose future is Jesus and his promise of life. As our messiah and savior, Jesus transforms us from people with no name, gives us a new name, My Delight, and sends us to brighten our world with his light ablaze within us and manifest by every deed we do in his name.
The change Jesus works in us by his word and his sacraments is no mere rearrangement as we’d rearrange furniture, and it’s more astounding than 100 million new red blood cells forming in our bodies every minute. The change Jesus works in us by his word and his sacraments is life-altering, third day transformation. Each of us is a new creation not just in the realm of the spirit. Pope Benedict once contrasted what it was not with what it was; he said:
“Being Christian is more than a cosmetic opera-tion that embellishes life...it is a new beginning and rebirth, death and resurrection. ...It is not purely spiritual but involves the body, the cosmos, and extends to the new earth and to the new heavens.”2
Worthy words to hear early in the year. Our third day living seeks more clearly this far-reach-ing, unmatched experience and relationship: Jesus delights in us and nourishes us with his word and himself so we may bring him to our world.
In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week
- Pause in the recreating light and life of our triune God.
- Ask Mary to present you to her son.
- Chat with Jesus: ask him to give us new or renewed purpose as his disciples and to help us welcome a new measure of his life for the sake of our world.
- Ask Jesus for the grace to notice more clearly the life he gives us and to practice it.
- Close by saying slowly the prayer Jesus taught us. Praying give us this day our daily bread prays to be transformed: transformed by putting on the attitude of Jesus more courageously and wearing it in practice: by example; in our deeds; in our choices as well as speech.
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- Calculated from the per-second estimate of John M. Higgins, M.D. “About 2 million cells enter the bloodstream from the bone marrow of a typical healthy human adult every second.”
- From the pope’s catechesis on the sacraments of 10 Dec 2008.
Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise
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Wiki-images surprise at water drawn wine PD-US; desert sunrise by Jessie Eastland
tp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en">CC BY-SA 3.0
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