19 January 2025 – 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

by Fr Fabian Dicom

Dear brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel takes us to a wedding in Cana, an ordinary scene, community gathered, a celebration of love. I think most of us, I think all of us, love to go for a wedding celebration. Yet, in the midst of this joy, something deeper unfolds. Jesus turns water into wine.

At first glance, this may seem like just another miracle but in John’s Gospel, miracles are signs. And this word ‘signs‘ are very important in the Gospel of John, always pointing to something greater. So what does this sign reveal?

The first thing that it reveals is that God is in the business of transformation, of change. And we fall back on the First Reading. Isaiah tells of a people once called forsaken, no hope, now remain ‘my delight’ and wedded to the land. What was abandoned becomes beloved. This is a transformation. We know the history of Israel. This is God’s way, not preserving things as they are but making all things new.

And at Cana, water became wine. The ordinary becomes extraordinary. Emptiness turns into abundance. But notice. This transformation begins with a moment of lack, of emptiness. That is when transformation takes place. They have no wine. 

Now in the biblical world, wine symbolise joy and fullness of life. To run out of wine wasn’t just a social disaster. It was a sign that something essential was missing. Now haven’t you and I felt this way in our lives, that something essential was missing? 

When life feels routine and dry.
When work, when our relationships or even our faith no longer sustain us.
When suffering, when doubt and exhaustion leave us empty.

The wine runs out.

Maybe it is struggling in a marriage.
Maybe I am feeling lonely and craving for a companion.
Maybe I am feeling stuck in a job.

And looking at the church and wondering if it still speaks to the realities of today. And I know many of us go through it. We come in empty, we leave empty because what is going on? It doesn’t make sense to us. And I don’t blame you. Sometimes we don’t. That is the reality.

And then that is this emptiness. But throughout scripture, God’s greatest work begins in emptiness. Creation began in the void. Israel found freedom only after losing everything, completely gone and then they find themselves.

Resurrection came only after death and the emptiness of the tomb.

So maybe when our ‘wine’ runs out, it is not the end. It is the beginning of something new. Can we hold on to that?

So going back to the Gospel, Jesus tells the servants to fill the jars with water. But these were no ordinary jars. We were told they are for religious purification. They represented the old way of approaching God. And the old way was through rituals, through external purity and law, which we still practice today.

Yet Jesus does not discard them. He transforms them. He fills them with something new. He fills them with wine, the symbol of joy, the symbol of happiness, the symbol of abundance. Our faith must bring that. It must not burden us.

Many of us grew up thinking faith is about rules. And we still do – about being good, avoiding sin and our preoccupation with that. But Cana reveals that faith is more than avoiding the bad, it is about experiencing the fullness of life. The fullness of life.

Saint Paul in the Second Reading reminds us that the spirit gives different gifts. But all, whatever gifts, and this is an important point, it is not for ourselves, it is not to make ourselves popular and famous. It is for the common good. The Word of God tells us it is for a common purpose. Faith is not just about following rules but about transformation and allowing the Spirit to work through us in the new and surprising ways.

And the Spirit works.

This sign also teaches us how God transforms, transforms through a process, not immediate. The water did not become wine instantly. It happened through the obedience, the trust and participation of the few people there. Even Jesus says to Mary, ‘My hour has not come‘ and he is pointing to something deeper than the immediate situation at the wedding.

His hour ultimately refers to the cross and more than that, where He will fully reveal the depth of God’s love by giving Himself completely. It is about His entire mission of bringing people, you and I, into the fullness of life. And that is the process.

Cana is a foretaste of that. Water becoming wine is a symbol of humanity being transformed by God’s grace. In our own lives, how often is God working quietly, unseen, in ways we do not yet recognise?

Perhaps or maybe we know that. We can know when our water is being changed into wine. I believe we can know when we become more compassionate, when I can feel for my brother and my sister, when my words are empowering, give life not death and not ridicule and not negative but when my words give life all the time, not only for some season.

When I become a person of integrity. I don’t compromise with the truth. The truth that is God’s, not according to my gospel.
When I am humble and I am totally dependent on God.
And when I can rise above myself, I become selfless and that is the only motivation I reach out to the least of my brothers, least of my sisters.
Then I know that is transformation is taking place, that my water is slowly becoming wine in my life.
And then I enjoy this. I have this joy that only God can give me.

And then comes the final revelation. The steward taste the wine and he is shocked. ‘You have saved the best for last.‘ I remember the song by Vanessa Williams – Save the best for last. My time, not your time. I don’t know what wine it was, whether it was a Brunello or some high level Cabernet Sauvignon or whatever it is. I am not a wine fanatic or whatever it is but it was ‘save the best for last.‘

So this is not just about good hospitality, it is about God’s economy, where grace is never stingy, never just enough. Grace is always overflowing.

The kingdom of God which is the process, which will become, is not about shortage. It is about abundance. The best is not in the past. It is still unfolding. Too often we think we have already seen the best days of our lives, of our faith, of our church, even our own lives. But this sign reveals that God is still saving the best for last.

And when we look at this, being pilgrims of hope makes so much sense.

So I conclude what does the sign reveal to us:-

It reveals a God who transforms, not just water into wine but fear into trust, wounds into wisdom, scarcity into abundance. 

It reveals that transformation begins when we acknowledge our emptiness and let go of control.

It reveals that grace often unfolds slowly but always in ways beyond our understanding.

It reveals that God’s love is always more than we expect, richer, deeper, intoxicating like the finest wine.

The only question for us left is this: Will we allow ourselves to be transformed?

God is always pouring new wine. The only thing we must decide is whether we are ready to drink.

Amen.

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