2nd Sunday of OT (C)

Do whatever He tells you JOHN 2:1–11

As we begin our second week of Ordinary Time, having completed the season of Christmas with the Solemnity of the Baptism of our Lord last Sunday, the Church presents us with the Scripture passage of the Wedding Feast at Cana. Most of us would be familiar with this passage as we contemplate it each time we reflect upon the second decade of the Mysteries of Light of the Most Holy Rosary. The miracle we are contemplating happens just before the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. Here we have the first sign that Jesus is truly the Messiah that all the world has been awaiting, the Word of God in the flesh.

At the very heart of this passage of Scripture is its portrayal of Mary as the Mother of God and our Mother as well. Like any mother, Mary instinctually knows that things are not right at the wedding feast. She therefore asks Jesus for help, even though she knows that He has not yet begun His public ministry.

We can all relate to this encounter between Jesus and His Mother as the Church teaches us that we can always go to our Lady and ask her for help.

What is also very interesting in this dialogue between Our Lord and His Mother in this passage, is that Jesus calls Mary “woman”. This seems odd and some might even call it a bit disrespectful of Our Lord.

Jesus calls His Mother “woman” again, as He dies on the Cross, when He makes Mary the mother of John, and by extension, the mother of us all.

By calling her “woman,” Jesus is not disrespecting His mother; He is drawing a parallel between Mary and Eve, the first mother of all of humanity. He is therefore communicating to us the fact that Mary is the new Eve, the new mother of all humankind.

Many people wrongly accuse Catholics of giving too much emphasis to Mary and not enough to Jesus Himself. This is not the case at all, as all of our devotion to Mary brings us closer to her Son, Jesus.

Devotion to Mary is therefore always what we call ‘Christo-centric’ (focused on Christ). As Catholics, we DO NOT worship Mary for we only worship God, but we do ask Our Lady to pray for us, and intercede for our needs and the needs of our loved ones.

In light of this, the words of Our Mother Mary to the servants to “do whatever He (Jesus) tells you,” are very important. Mary’s only request of us is to do the will of Jesus in our lives and grow closer in our friendship with Him. When we pray the Holy Rosary, for example, we come closer to Jesus, as we contemplate His life with our Mother Mary at our side, asking her to pray for us.

The essence of prayer is communication with God, where we are able to listen to God as we speak to Him about whatever we are going through in life. We are therefore invited to place all of our trust in God, totally abandoning ourselves to His Holy Will.

In this we follow the example of our Mother Mary, who abandoned herself completely to God, when she responded to the Angel Gabriel in her fiat, accepting her vocation as the mother of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

As we continue our journey through this first month of 2019, may we not be afraid to allow our Mother Mary to help us to place all our trust in God and in so doing, “do whatever He (Jesus) tells you”.

The Gospel Meditations for January 20 and 27 are by Trinidadian priest Fr Matthew Martinez OP who is currently ministering in Sligo, Republic of Ireland.

By Fr Matthew Martinez OP