Second Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C
Pastoral Visitation to Resurrection and Assumption Parishes
Homily
[Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 96; 1Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-12]
I am delighted to have this opportunity to visit Resurrection and Assumption parishes this weekend. It is an occasion when I can take the pulse of the parish, witness the good things happening, and check up on the parish priest.
Before all else, I’d like to say to each and every one of you a word of heartfelt thanks. We heard St Paul, in the second reading, speak of the many gifts the Holy Spirit pours out upon the disciples of Jesus for the service of God’s people and the sake of the common good. It is very clear to me that, in many ways, you are putting these gifts to work. On Friday, I visited institutions associated with the parishes – Jubilee Lodge, our Catholic schools, and Gianna Centre – and met with the very dedicated and competent pastoral staff, while Saturday was given over to meetings with finance council, pastoral council, and a number of leaders in very encouraging programmes for our youth. Much good is being done! Thank you.
Now, to lead us into the message of the Gospel text, I’d like to share with you what I observed in all of my encounters on the visits of Friday: people giving to others in need a reason for hope. I met, or heard stories about, a number of people with very complex needs, often bearing them without sufficient support. We can all understand well that if I have difficulties too heavy to bear alone, those situations can lead to despair. So, it was beautiful to see many persons connected to the parish spending time with lonely seniors, accompanying students with serious disabilities, and walking with women in crisis pregnancy, all with the aim of surrounding these people with love and support and nourish them with a reason for hope.
Hope is now very much in the forefront of our minds as we begin the Holy Year, which Pope Francis has designated a Jubilee of Hope. None of us is immune from complex burdens, quite often beyond our capacity to carry. The Holy Year invites us not to allow our challenges – perhaps personal health concerns, problems at home, difficulties in the workplace – to give way to despair but instead to remind ourselves of the reason we have for hope. And that reason for hope, of course, is Jesus.
The Gospel text tells us why. It is the familiar story of Jesus changing water into wine at Cana. Its very rich symbolism communicates beautifully how Jesus is the reason for our hope.
Notice, first of all, that the context of the story is a wedding feast. This recalls right away the image of marital love often used in Scripture to describe God’s love for us. An example is given from Isaiah in the first reading. God’s love is that of a bridegroom for his bride – committed, steadfast, self-sacrificing, and trustworthy. As we ponder this love of God for us, particularly in moments of difficulty, hope begins to dawn.
Moreover, we learn from the text that this love has become incarnate. St John says that Jesus performed the sign of changing water into wine so that all might see his “glory”, which is to say, his true nature as the Son of God become one of us. This is not something abstract. Jesus became one of us to enter into our lives, to be with us in our challenges, and transform them for our good. He changed water into wine in response to a keenly felt difficulty experienced by the wedding host – public shame at running out of wine. Jesus does not will ill for us, only our good, so will act to transform our situations for our betterment. As this astounding truth takes hold, challenges begin to feel smaller, because I know the Lord is with me, the Lord for whom nothing is impossible, and, in consequence, fear or anxiety give way to hope.
All he asks is that we believe in him, which means trusting him and doing what he says. The instruction the Blessed Mother gave to the servant is the same direction she gives to us: do whatever he tells you. When we make the decision to trust not in ourselves but in the Lord, when we accept his wisdom instead of our own rationalization, real hope takes hold in our lives, because we know we are being led by our God who loves us more than we can imagine, and who knows exactly what needs to be done in order to transform our lot.
The same Jesus who changed water into wine at Cana is now present with us in this mass through the miraculously transformed gifts of bread and wine into his true Body and Blood. Let us approach the altar today with both humility and confidence, aware of our need for him and sure of his ability to care for us. As we are renewed in our reason for hope, let us pray that the grace of the sacrament will make us agents of this same hope to others. In this Jubilee Year, let Jesus Christ be proclaimed to all as the one sure reason for true and lasting hope for our world.
✠ Most Reverend Richard W. Smith
Resurrection and Assumption Parishes
January 18-19, 2025