Jesus brings in the new thing that God makes.  And it springs forth at this very hour.  Do we see it?  And do we welcome it?

The wine runs short at a wedding that the mother of Jesus, he and his disciples attend.  As she finds this out, she points it out to her son.  But he shows no interest in what she wants, for his hour has not yet come.

Yet Jesus’ reply in John’s account might just match what Jesus says in the accounts by Matthew, Mark and Luke.  That is to say, family interventions or ties are not what counts.  Rather, what bring about Jesus’ hour and what counts is what God says and wills.

But there is no one who hears and does what God says and wills more and better than Mary.  No doubt, she shows that she hears and yield to what God says and wills as she tells the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”  Hence, she takes nothing away from Jesus and she always points us to him.

So then, in due time or hour, Jesus does the first of his signs as he turns water into wine.  The wine that makes our hearts glad (Ps 104, 15).  He thus shows his glory, his weight, his worth, who he truly is, what he means to us. And his disciples start to believe in him.

Jesus’ hour comes as he dies on cross. 

Yes, the turning of water into wine points him out as he who brings in the new thing from heaven.  The new order, in which the last gets to be first and the first last.  In fact, he is the new thing, the new order, in person.  For he is what it means to love God with one’s whole being and to love the neighbor as oneself.

And he fulfills the law and the prophets, which he sums up in his new command:  “Love one another as I love you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.”  So then, it is on the cross that the hour of the final revelation of the new takes place.  The hour when he gives up his body and sheds his blood for us.

But do we read, grasp, the new that Jesus brings in and embodies?  More importantly, do we accept it?  And do we even prepare to accept it?  How? By doing the things God shows us time and again that he wants us to do (SV.EN XII:82).

Lord Jesus, help us who, weighing less than a breath, rise on a balance.  Give us a share in your Spirit and in your weight.  We shall thus get to pull our weight and point to the hour of your glory on the cross.  So that others may believe in you.

19 January 2025
2nd Sunday in O.T. (C)
Is 62, 1-5; 1 Cor 12, 4-11; Jn 2, 1-11