Somehow the interview process came around to the subject of marriage and the applicant told me he was going through his second divorce right now. I had to share with him that while I was sorry it didn’t work out for him, it would be impossible for me to say, “I know how you must feel.” Because to be quite frank, I can’t even IMAGINE the concept of divorce—and not because I’m Catholic, but because I have been so blessed to have Marilyn as my bride for the last 35 years and for the rest of my life.
The conversation brought to mind the wedding feast at Cana from John’s Gospel which, to my pleasant surprise, is the Gospel reading at this Sunday’s Mass. My love for Marilyn at the beginning of our lives together was like a wine that we enjoyed together. As the years go by and the love grows, it becomes like the “finest wine” that was created by Jesus out of water at that glorious feast so many years ago.
The conversation also gave me the “grist” for my blog tonight. I hope you enjoy it.
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John's Gospel doesn’t present many miracles in its pages. There are three physical healings and two physical changes. There is the multiplication of the loaves and fish, and the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana. These are "signs" pointing toward Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. They are offered to those who can see these signs in hopes that they will come to believe in Him.
In the same Gospel there are often literary references back to the Book of Genesis. Both this Gospel and Genesis start with, "In the beginning." The first day of creation was the act of God's hovering over the "water" or “chaos”(Gen. 1, 2). God said, "Let there be light" and so there was and God called that "day" and the dark God called "night". In John's Gospel the good things happen in the day's light and the bad things take place in the dark.
For John, Jesus is Light and as John writes in his first chapter, "This Light was the life of the world."
There are six water jars in the story of the wedding feast and there were six days of creation in Genesis. The water of chaos or the unformed, is changed by the Word of God into seeable light and the water in the stone jugs is to be seen through the light of Jesus; making it a sign. The signs are to be seen and taken as lights shining on Jesus as Messiah.
This is the opening, or first day of the new creation. The wine-masters indicate that this new wine is more of a sign than the earlier one. For John, Jesus is the later wine, which completes the wedding feast begun with the first serving of wine, or the original creation of the universe. This of course, includes our human creation.
The disciples begin to accept Jesus as the Son of God. The real miracle is their acceptance of themselves as changed-into-new-wine people. This miracle continues taking place in our own lives as well. God continues breathing over our chaos, our spiritual formlessness, our darkness and bringing us into the light, through the Light that is Jesus.
We are just at the beginning of the Liturgical Year. We, like the disciples, are always coming slowly into the light of our being newly created through Christ's birth, life, death and Resurrection. Through the accounts of Genesis' creation stories, God comes out of hiding, just enough to allow us the freedom to acknowledge that there is a Person of “Beyondness”, Whose love does such things as giving us signs which we can accept, ignore or reject as mere possibilities or accidentals.
Last night just as I was getting ready to relax for the evening and write my entry, I got a call from one of the girls down at the store. She said that the key I had given her earlier in the day did not work in the door and she was ready to close the store and go home. I couldn’t understand why the key wouldn’t work—I just had them made and I tested all of them. I said to myself, “Can’t that girl do anything on her own? She’s probably using the wrong key!” But because the possibility was there that maybe the key didn’t work, I changed my clothes again and drove down there.
On the way there, the rosary was being prayed on the radio. “That’s not unusual”, you might say. Well it is since January 1st, when the radio station changed its programming schedule and no longer has a rosary on at eight in the evening. This rosary was being said in response to the earthquake in Haiti. It was a special program.
What does this story have to do with my previous reflection? I was very sleepy all day yesterday, and while I was saying my rosary earlier in the evening in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I fell asleep! I awoke before being embarrassed by snoring, but I did fall asleep. I tried to finish my rosary, but Mass started and I just didn’t get to it. So when I heard the rosary on the radio, I was dumfounded when I realized that I came into the program at the EXACT Hail Mary I last remembered saying when I had fallen asleep!
Some may call me a religious fanatic for thinking so, but I got the impression that Mary was helping me finish my rosary while she had my attention on the radio. The reason I think that is because when I got to the center I found out that sure enough, I had given my employee the wrong key. I don’t know how or why I did, but it was enough to get me in my car at that exact moment and it took me just enough time to get there that I was able to finish my rosary.
I think it was a sign. I am beginning to think there is no such thing in my life anymore as coincidence. The people I work with know that one of my favorite sayings is “Life is a choice.” Things don’t just happen. They happen as a result of the choices we make either deliberately or unintentionally, but not by coincidence. I have no idea why or how I could have given my employee the wrong key, but I have the feeling that just about everything that happens in my life and every choice I make is somehow the direct result of the love my God has for me and the love I have for Him.
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