There is a story about a wedding rehearsal where the groom had his own ideas for the vows. At the wedding rehearsal, the groom approached the priest with an unusual offer. “Look, I’ll give you $100 if you’ll change the wedding vows. When you get to the part where I’m to promise to ‘be true to her in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and honor all the days of my life..’ I’d appreciate it if you’d just leave that part out.” He slipped the priest the cash and walked away.
The wedding day arrived. When it came time for the groom’s vows, the priest looked the young man in the eye and said, “Will you promise to prostrate yourself before her, obey her every command and wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life and swear eternally before God and your lovely wife that you will not ever even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?”
The groom gulped and looked around and then said in a tiny voice, “I do.”
After the ceremony, the groom pulled the priest aside and hissed, “I thought we had a deal.”
The priest gave him back his $100 and said, “We did, but the bride’s Father in heaven made me a much better deal.”
The last 3 weeks have been about God revealing his glory to his children starting with Epiphany where the star revealed the holy birth to the wise men and shepherds, then the baptism of our Lord where God the Father revealed his glory by calling him his Son at the Jordan river.
Now we arrive in Cana, near Nazareth at a wedding where Jesus not only reveals his glory in his first miracle but begins his ministry it seems in earnest.
We assume he has spent the last 30 years with his mother and now he has gathered his disciples and it seems the first place to take them, the kick off event will be a ceremony where a man and a woman are united as one.
From the Manger to the river to the wedding party it has been a fast journey these last three weeks to get to this point and Jesus does not disappoint. At the wedding celebration he provides about 180 gallons of wine. An abundance of wine. And he does it by taking the water meant to purify feet and hands and turns it into a new wine, just as his coming into the world has brought in a new celebration and a new message of love and hope for all. In abundance!
Jesus was invited along with his disciples to the wedding and as we know his presence made all the difference in the world…not only because he cared about a temporal need…they were out of wine, but because he loved us dearly and is also coming into our life, our history – to bring the new wine of joy and celebration to all God’s beloved children.
Years ago when Johnny Carson was the host of The Tonight Show he interviewed an eight year old boy. The young man was asked to appear because he had rescued two friends in a coalmine outside his hometown in West Virginia. As Johnny questioned the boy, it became apparent to him and the audience that the young man was a Christian. So Johnny asked him if he attended Sunday school. When the boy said he did Johnny inquired, “What are you learning in Sunday school?” “Last week,” came his reply, “our lesson was about when Jesus went to a wedding and turned water into wine.” The audience roared, but Johnny tried to keep a straight face. Then he said, “And what did you learn from that story?” The boy squirmed in his chair. It was apparent he hadn’t thought about this. But then he lifted up his face and said, “If you’re going to have a wedding, make sure you invite Jesus!” The little boy was on to something. Weddings are a time of joy but also a time to be cetain Jesus has been invited into the hearts of the bride and groom.
Marriage is one of those things that can be the most holy and wonderful thing in the world or one of the most miserable institutions known to man. It can be waking up each morning as full of love for your spouse or more so than the day you married, or it can be a living nightmare, an unbearable alliance that has grown old.
We have seen both examples. Haven’t we.
The key to a successful marriage is obvious. God made marriage for men and women. He made it so we would not be alone but also so through marriage, when we say yes to each other forever we are also saying yes once again to God, and inviting him into our lives and union with another person.
It is actually the simplest thing in the world. Marriage as in the Holy state of Matrimony, the sacrament instituted by God can be the most joy filled experience that lasts a lifetime.
Or we can take God out of it and find it is more like a life sentence in which we just want out. A holy union between two of God’s children of course requires God’s love at the center.
It is simple, it is elegant and it is fantastic to be in a marriage with Jesus Christ at the center. It truly is like saving the best wine for last as the love within marriage grows richer and two people grow more in union with God each day.
It is simple, yet the world and it seems a majority of folks don’t know it. Or haven’t tried it. But the opportunity and the invitation to a celebration with Christ is always available.
I have seen couples where affairs nearly destroyed them. But both spouses turned around and were brave enough to invite Christ in, into their pain, into their suffering and agony, Into the impossible possibility with betrayal at the center, I have seen both saying yes, asking for forgiveness and today 20 years later, they still have the love they gained that day when they did not let pride, or hurt stop Jesus Christ from healing them.
The thing is, this first miracle was bigger than a wedding, it was bigger even than marriage, and the impact Christ has on a life is for all of us, married or single.
The little boy was right, we should always invite Jesus to a wedding and a marriage.
But all of us, married or single, should invite him into our lives and relationships, give it up to him. As Paul says, live a life for Christ.
As Christians who believe we are children of God, created by Him and will one day return to him –if all goes well….why would we not have Christ at our center? He has after all provided us the way to our home in Heaven.
There’s a story about G. K. Chesterton traveling on a train, absorbed in a book. He suddenly awoke to his surroundings and discovered that he was on a train, but he had forgotten where he was going. He got out at the next station and sent a telegram from there to his wife. The telegram said, “I’m here; where ought I to be?” The reply came back from his wife; “Look at your ticket.”
This is the situation a lot of Christians face. We’ve not only forgotten where we are going – many of us have even forgotten that we have a ticket.
We get close. When times are bad or we are suffering we finally remember … after all the money is gone, after all our youth is spent…. and health has left, we remember that there is a ticket in the bottom of the dresser in our soul that we forgot about.
Oh, we held on to it by coming to Mass and saying our prayers but perhaps we have not used our ticket, invited Christ to own our life for us, lead us, and give our day to him each and every day.
But how wonderful would it be if we did that every day, married or single, rich or poor, suffering or living the dream, if each day we said,
…I know Lord. I know Lord I don’t have the means or power or strength, so today before my day starts, I want to give you this day and all I do and all I say…it is yours. Please take it from me. The hurt, the anxiety, the joy and the achievements….all of it.
How wonderful to live each day knowing he will help us. We can then truly say I am God’s daughter or God’s son and nothing else matters…not today.
The good news is Jesus Christ did come into our world. He did show us his glory and he did die for our sins, so each one of us could find our path back to God the Father.
We have only to recommit, renew our baptismal vows by giving our life and world to him each day and each evening.
In this first miracle we hear the disciples came to believe in him. This is how we can grow our faith too…give each day to him, allow him to turn our water into wine, take the ordinariness of life and make it a celebration, in our marriages, in our worship and in our work. It is then we will be making use of our ticket on the path to God.
Deacon Tony Pynes 