Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Reflection: Our hour has come; the time is now
By SISTER MARY McGLONE
Time, what is it?
What time is it now?
Do you have time for …?
My mom used to say, “Time comes, baby comes.”
The number of weeks or months counted before greeting a baby was far from exact. By the clock, time can be very precise — and that matters for a lot of mechanical or human things. But time itself passes, and it has nothing to do with the clock.
We are living in the beginning moments of a new era, the roots of which go far back. In fact, I would suggest that we haven’t seen a time like this for five or six hundred years. Back around the mid-1400s, Johannes Gutenberg invented a machine called the “movable-type printing press” that revolutionized — and began to democratize — reading. The press made possible the Protestant Reformation, putting the Bible into the hands of laypeople as never before. Meanwhile, Christopher Columbus failed at finding the sea route he wanted and instead found out that the world was not at all like he and his European friends had thought.
Two hemispheres were changed unimaginably as Europe confronted America, but those novelties had a more immediate effect on the upper classes and intellectuals than they did on the peasants who made up about 90 percent of the population.
Today, it’s different.
Almost everyone in the world is affected by the communications revolution that has brought the world into our living rooms, and by the fact that AI has only begun to make us reconsider what it means to be human. This has left vast numbers of people feeling off-kilter, unsure of what the future might hold but knowing that it will be unimaginably different.
Today, as we celebrate our liturgies, we listen to literature written somewhere between about 2,000 and 2,500 years ago.
As always in the Gospel of John, there are layers upon layers of meaning to be peeled in the account of the wedding at Cana: the meaning of water becoming wine, the subtle exhortation to save the best for last, the assurance that marriage is a blessing and even the confirmation that a good party is a holy experience. Not to mention the import of Mary getting Jesus to change his mind, one of only two women in the Gospels to do so. (The other was the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24-30.)
In today’s reading, Jesus says, “My hour (time) has not yet come.”
But John has already told us that something earthshaking is about to happen. For some reason, our liturgy cuts off the first part of the first verse of this reading, but careful readers will notice that John introduced the story by saying, “On the third day, there was a wedding.” The “third day!” That’s the day of the Lord, the day of salvation, the day Jesus predicts as the day of his vindication.
Jesus claimed not to have felt that his “third day” had arrived, but Mary knew how badly it was needed. The people who ran out of wine at the wedding symbolize people who have run out of hope. They had prepared for everything to be plentiful; they were beginning a new life! And then, it started to fall apart as the joy wore thin. Mary noticed and, instead of arguing with Jesus, she told the stewards to do whatever he would tell them and all would be well. Jesus responded to his mother’s urging; not because he was ready, but because the need was ripe.
As a church, we have just begun the Jubilee Year of hope. Pope Francis tells us that hope is a gift and a duty. He tells us that “hoping is waiting for something that has already been given to us: salvation in God’s eternal and infinite love.”
Our world seems to be running out of joy. We’re afraid for the vulnerable, we’re sorrowful with the victims of war, we’re concerned about our country and world, and especially about our descendants in this time of unpredictable upheaval on every front.
What are we to do? Mary herself didn’t know what Jesus would do, only that he could make a difference.
In this Jubilee Year, we are invited to be pilgrims of hope. Our hour has come. We have been given the gifts necessary for the moment, we only need to “do whatever he tells you.” And whether we understand it or not, God will work out the rest.
Reading I
(Isaiah 62: 1-5)
For Zion’s sake I will not be silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,
until her vindication shines forth like the dawn
and her victory like a burning torch.
Nations shall behold your vindication,
and all the kings your glory;
you shall be called by a new name
pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.
You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,
a royal diadem held by your God.
No more shall people call you “Forsaken, “
or your land “Desolate, “
but you shall be called “My Delight, “
and your land “Espoused.”
For the LORD delights in you
and makes your land his spouse.
As a young man marries a virgin,
your Builder shall marry you;
and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride
so shall your God rejoice in you.
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 96: 1-3, 7-10)
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Give to the LORD, you families of nations,
give to the LORD glory and praise;
give to the LORD the glory due his name!
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Worship the LORD in holy attire.
Tremble before him, all the earth;
Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He governs the peoples with equity.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Reading II
(1 Corinthians 12: 4-11)
Brothers and sisters:
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom;
to another, the expression of knowledge according to the
same Spirit;
to another, faith by the same Spirit;
to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit;
to another, mighty deeds;
to another, prophecy;
to another, discernment of spirits;
to another, varieties of tongues;
to another, interpretation of tongues.
But one and the same Spirit produces all of these,
distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.
Gospel
(John 2: 1-11)
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
“They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her,
“Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servers,
“Do whatever he tells you.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,
each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus told them,
“Fill the jars with water.”
So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them,
“Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.”
So they took it.
And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,
without knowing where it came from
— although the servers who had drawn the water knew —,
the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,
“Everyone serves good wine first,
and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;
but you have kept the good wine until now.”
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee
and so revealed his glory,
and his disciples began to believe in him.