SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C - 2013

INTRODUCTION

·         After the Baptism of the Lord we begin the liturgical season called “ordinary time.” 

·         Christmas season is a time of epiphany, manifestation, of the Lord. The liturgy tries to answer our question, who is that child? Through the many liturgical texts.

·         Today  Jesus is at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. This event is going to be another epiphany, another way to let us know who he is.  

THE BOOK OF THE THIRD ISAIAH

«  Chapters  56-66 of the Book of Isaiah are called Third Isaiah.   

«  These chapters were written probably by several authors, but as a whole they have a unity which is structured in three parts:   

o   Chapters  56-59 and 63-66. In these chapters the prophet accuses the people to be unfaithful, and at the same time announces hope for the future.   

o   Chapters  60-62 are very similar to the Deutero-Isaiah. These chapters are full of hope and optimism.  

«  The things after the return from exile are not as the people expected  them to be:

o   There are difficulties between those who remained in the country, and those who have returned from the exile

o   Both groups consider that the people of the other group have contaminated themselves with the foreign country’s ways and religion. 

o   Those who come back want the  possessions they left behind, and those who have remained in the country consider them to be theirs.    

o   Life is not easy, and the dreams of those who have returned seem to disappear. 

o   But the prophet encourages them to continue to dream, not because the difficulties are not real, but because God is always present.

o   Nothing new has ever been done without first dreaming of its possibility. 

o   Dreams help us to discover the wonders God does in our midst.    

FIRST READING  Is 62:1-5

Ø  The prophet will neither be quiet nor rest until justice is established in the life of the people. 

Ø  Everyone will see this justice, and thus Zion will receive a new name 

o   In Scripture the change of name means a change in the life of the person, and also that a new mission is given to him or her.   

o   It I s as if they say that the person has been made new. This passage is about the Zion that comes back from exile which will meet again with the Zion that remained in their land.    

Ø  You will not only receive a new name but you will be   

o   A glorious  crown 

o   And a royal diadem

In the hand of the Lord.

Ø  The new name that you will receive will not be anymore “Abandoned” but  

o   Your new name will be “My Beloved”  

o   Because God will marry you, because he delights in  you  

o   Thus your land will have a husband

Ø  In the next verse the author talks about the theme of the newly wed. 

o   The husband rejoices with his wife 

o   God says that this is the joy he experiences over his people, over each one of us.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM   Psalm  96

PROCLAIM HIS MARVELOUS DEEDS TO ALL THE NATIONS   

      Psalm 96 sings the divine kingship.     

      We are invited to sing a new song, the cause of joy and of singing is that THE LORD IS KING.   

      Joy because the false gods are not God.   

      The court of this King is formed by   

o   Honor and Majesty    

o   Strength  and beauty      

GOSPEL  Jn 2:1-11

ü  The gospel is taken from John 

ü  Jesus makes his glory to be seen by his disciples and they believe in him.    

ü  John does not say that Jesus performs a miracle, but that he has made a sign which will help the disciples to know him a little bit better, and thus be able to believe in him.   

ü  When we read this gospel we always try very hard to understand the conversation between Jesus and his mother, the way he speaks to her. The conversation was probably longer, but John tells us only what he needs to convey the message.   

o   Mary sees a need, she knows her son. She says “they do not have wine”   

o   Her words made us think because they could mean simply to acknowledge the fact that there is no more wine, but the answer of Jesus means something else.  

o   Jesus seems to say to her, that this is not their concern. “My hour has not come yet.”  

o   What Mary says after this answer of her son, is still more surprising “do whatever he tells you” Has he not say that this does not concern him?   

o   And the water is changed into wine.    

ü  Let us reflect on some aspects of this gospel:  

o   The scene is a wedding feast, the dearest and greatest of all the celebrations of the human beings.  

o   There is not enough wine. What does that mean?  Wine means joy and celebration. The prophet Isaiah saw the messianic time as a time in which there will be an abundance of many things among them wine.     

o   Jesus speaks of his hour. What hour? The hour of his giving himself up for our salvation. It seems as though, through the voice of Mary Jesus perceives in his heart the voice of the Father, telling him that the hour to proclaim the good news is already here. At his baptism the Father has called him his beloved son.  

ü  Let us take our Bible and let us see what the Gospel of  John has  before the sign at Cana 

o   John the Baptist and the people who are at the Jordan  see the Spirit under the sign of a dove come upon Jesus

o   Afterwards Jesus begins to call his disciples, each one called in a different way according to his personality,  and each one has also his own way to respond to the call.  

o   Now that he has called them, he goes with them to the wedding feast. With the sign of the water changed into wine they start to believe in him, to trust him, to have faith in him.  

o   They need faith to be able to follow him.    

Below you will find two liturgical text which may help us to pray during this week 

ü  The first one is taken from the preface of Epiphany according to the   rite of St. Ambrose:

o   Beginning with his extraordinary birth your Word reveals to the world your divine power through multiple signs: the star which leads the magi, the water changed into wine and in the baptism in the Jordan the proclamation of the Son of God. Through these saving manifestations it clearly appears to our eyes your will to give yourself to us in your beloved Son.” 

ü  The second text is taken from the antiphon before the Benedictus of the Lauds of Epiphany.

o   Today the Bridegroom claims his bride, the Church, since Christ has washed her sins away in Jordan’s waters; the Magi haste with their gifts to the royal wedding; and the wedding guests rejoice, for Christ has changed water into wine. Alleluia   

 SECOND READING   1Cor 12,4-11

      The community of Corinth was very enthusiastic about the extraordinary gifts which allowed them to perform “great things” 

      Paul tells them that there are many gifts, but one same Spirit   

      The Spirit is the greatest gift that we have received. The Spirit, the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity. He distributes the gifts as he wills, and to whom he wills.  

      According to this message each gift, goes with a particular service to the community. 

 

CLARETIAN CORNER

 

After the many times our Lord had told me – as I said above, that Fr. Claret would arrange the first houses of the order and the other many times that His majesty revealed to me in spirit the sanctity of that soul, the Lord provided this servant of God to come to the convent to talk with me. (I think my confessor had given him notes to read. The confessor willed me to explain everything as he would be questioning it. But I felt so ashamed to say that God  has communicated this work to me because I did not understand anything about communications or revelations; so, I only told him that the Lord had made it known to me that he desired to arrange our order to observed in it His most Holy Law and the evangelical counsels. With these few words the Lord permitted that we understand each other and, immediately, without giving place to further explanations, he told me not to hesitate, that it would be done so. And, when I told him that God was in a hurry to do it soon and that our Lord had told me that he had to go to Rome to procure the permission of His holiness, he replied that the fruit was already ripe  but not yet in season, that I could rest leaving the care to him. And then, with one of those jokes that he used when speaking, he said: “Now, I know already that you are here.”       María Antonia París. Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters.  Autobiography 61.

I have already pointed out that some people act like hens who, having laid an egg, begin to cackle and so lose it. This is much like the case of some ill-advised priests who, after they have done some good deed or heard confessions or given a sermon, go around looking for little tidbits to satisfy their vanity. They talk complacently about what they've said or how they've said it. Just as I myself am disgusted listening to such talk, I can well imagine that I would disgust others if I were to do the same. So I resolved never at all to talk about these things.  Saint Anthony Mary Claret. Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 401.