Last
week, as we heard the account of the Wedding at Cana, we reflected on
how the inferior wine of the world runs short of our desires, and we
need to go to Jesus to receive the deep joy of the good wine.
That is what we heard about in the first reading. The people, after
having returned from the Babylonian Exile for over forty years, are
restored to life in Jerusalem. But not until now were they fully
restored, for in today's reading they receive the Torah again, and
this moves them in such a deep way, awakening a part of them that had
been long asleep, that it moves them to tears. The Lord offers them
what their hearts were longing for – a relationship of love with
Him!
Today
we see a glimpse of that that good wine is: it is in experiencing the
liberty that Jesus brings: the freedom from the captivity of our sins
but also of all evil, especially death the greatest of evils. It is
Jesus alone that restores our sight to we who were blinded and could
no longer see the truth of this world clearly, who couldn't behold
God face-to-face until He came to deliver us.
Just
as Jesus transformed the good water into the best wine, he desires
today to transform the good of our culture into a deep and abiding
peace and joy that the world cannot offer. For we know that our
country offers us a sense of freedom, that our culture stress a
profound respect for the individual. But this is only part of the
truth God wishes to offer us. The glad tidings which the Lord Jesus
brings to us, the poor, transcends this, lifting it up, purifying it,
and making it eternally meaningful.
This
deeper meaning is found in our second reading: the Pauline image of
the Body of Christ from 1 Corinthians 12. This text is absolutely
required reading for any Christian, and should be central for us
Catholics in understanding what it means to be part of God's family.
What this passage reminds us of is two critical points that come from
our Baptism into Christ: we are all important, and we are all
inseparably connected.
Firstly,
St. Paul essentially says, we all have different roles in the Body of
Christ, and they are all important, all necessary. What would the
Church be like if it were full of only priests and nuns? We'd look
pretty silly, and Father wouldn't have anyone to baptize! What if
the married couples all desperately desired to be priests or nuns?
Then where would the holy marriages be? And don't even think of
saying the maintenance people aren't needed, or you will find out
real fast just how much so they are!
Secondly,
we are all connected. I've been thinking of this a lot lately, with
Fr. Dan's surgery, Bishop D'Arcy's cancer returning, and, for the
high school where I am chaplain, four funerals for current SJHS
students' fathers in the past month. Indeed, for us Catholics, when
one part of the body suffers, we all suffer, because of our great
love and concern for each other. We know that in this life, we share
in each others' sorrows and each others' joys, because the Body of
Christ is inseparably connected in Jesus, in this Eucharist.
And
that is the better wine Jesus offers us. Sure, liberty is a good
thing, and the individual needs to be respected. But we Christians
know that the best wine is offered to us in the Communion that we
have in the Body of Christ. Let us pray that we may ever more and more
appreciate and live this mystery of unity that is so central to our Christian
life that we re-live it every single week.
No comments:
Post a Comment