Has this ever happened to you?
You were stopped or arrested and jailed for going 30 miles per hour in a 25 mile an hour zone? Or, you had your house bombed while you, your spouse and your children were home?
Both did happen to Dr. Martin Luther King, whose birthday we commemorate on the third Monday of January each year. Martin Luther King credited Gandhi for helping to form his passive resistance techniques. Two of my favorite MLK quotes are:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.”
“Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was an ordinary person doing extraordinary things, but his life was full of contradictions.
He wasn’t interested in money, yet he wore silk suits. He called the nation to a moral awakening, yet he was a well-known womanizer. He had powerful enemies like J. Edgar Hoover and powerful friends like the Kennedy Family. He was concerned about racial prejudice but also poverty and the war in Vietnam. It was on April 4, in 1968, that Martin Luther King stepped onto a balcony and a rifle shot slammed him to the ground and his death.
King was an unlikely hero. It didn’t happen all at once. He was only 27 years old in 1955 and the Baptist minister in a small downtown church in Montgomery when Rosa Parks declined to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus.
Many of the black ministers in Alabama wanted to host a meeting to organize a boycott of the bus system. They wanted to hold the meeting in Martin Luther King’s small church because it was closest to downtown. The session ran long.
Some ministers were frustrated by the length of the meeting and wanted to leave. They invited King to walk out with them. His response was, “I would like to go, but I have to stay; it’s my church.”
He often said that because he stayed in that meeting, he had begun to feel the urgency and understand the importance of joining the boycott.
Dr. King saw the need, took up the burden and was slowly thrust into the limelight. He led a wave of courageous ordinary people through the streets of the South. He was an ordinary person who did extraordinary things, not for self-interest, but for the common good.
Once again, all of us are asked to keep his dream alive:
By loving, not hating.
By forgiving and not being prejudiced.
By promoting peace and not war!
By building bridges.
Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King. May you rest in peace.
Now, onto today’s gospel. If you have ever planned or helped to plan a wedding, you know there are a lot of preparations and details.
Despite the many hours of planning, sooner or later, something goes wrong at the wedding or reception. Glitches just seem to be a part of every wedding ceremony. Here are some that have happened at St. Francis over the years:
It is no surprise that at the wedding in Cana, something went wrong. They ran out of wine. Remember, at the time of Christ, weddings lasted for at least a week, and people didn’t RSVP, so the couple didn’t have any idea of how many guests would show up.
It is amazing that this incredible story of Cana is only recorded by one of the gospel writers, John.
One of the most significant details as to why we Catholics honor Mary (yes, we honor Mary; we do not worship Mary, we only worship God) is found in today’s Gospel account of the wedding feast of Cana.
For some reason, and probably typical of most women, Mary had that grace, quality and virtue called “woman’s intuition.” She was sensitive about the young couple running out of wine. She went over to her son and simply said, “They have no wine.”
Jesus’ response is simple, though I don’t suggest anyone say this to your mother, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.”
Don’t be alarmed that Jesus refers to His Mother as “woman.” Remember that while she is the woman among all women chosen to be the mother of Jesus, who is the Christ, Mary was a normal person.
Mary is not divine, but she is special.
Here is one of the many reasons we honor Mary: Jesus’ response didn’t stop Mary, in fact we see Mary in her role as mediator tell the waiters, “Do whatever he tells you.” Mary totally trusted her son. And Jesus does not ignore his mother.
Notice, also, the obedience of the waiters. They do exactly what Jesus asks of them.
Jesus asks the waiters to fill the six containers that can hold between 20-30 gallons of water. That is a lot of water turned into wine. Imagine what the waiters were thinking and feeling as they watched the water turn into wine, the color, the smell and whatever else you look for in determining a good wine.
This is not a miracle of healing, but a miracle of celebrating and abundance. It is the miracle of revealing that Jesus is the Christ.
The miracle clearly shows the humanity of Jesus. He is social; he attends the reception and has a good time. He is sensitive and caring to the couple and does not want them to be embarrassed.
The miracle also shows his Divinity. He is not an illusionist or magician. He is God and he can perform miracles. In fact, this is the first miracle in the Gospel of John, showing not only that Jesus is the Christ the Messiah and the Savior, but also the importance of marriage.
You have been to enough wedding receptions to know the joy of the celebration.
Use your imagination and journey back in time to Cana and imagine yourselves as a couple dancing cheek to cheek during a romantic song that is your special couple song. Suddenly the music stops. One of the musicians announces. “We will ask you to return to your seats as we will now pray the traditional blessings of Yahweh on the bride and groom.”
Today we would refer to that blessing as a toast. So, both of you, along with all the other guests, hustle back to your table. At that point, both of you see Jesus, who you invited to the wedding. You can hardly wait to dash over and be in His presence once again. It has been too long since both of you had last seen him.
Joyously and ceremoniously, you and your spouse join the other guests, looking at the bride and groom, raising your glasses, and praying to Almighty God for His Divine graces upon your friends who are now husband and wife. But then you turn to each other, lovingly look into each other’s eyes, and automatically pray that God will continue to bless your marriage.
Then you sip the wine. Both of you are distracted as you savor the taste of the new wine. Neither of you had ever tasted such a perfect wine. “The wine, the wine, where did this delicious wine come from?” You gently nudge your spouse, pointing over to Jesus and say, “I bet I know who made this wine.”
This is not a story about winemaking or tasting, but John’s account that Jesus is the Christ and the sacredness of marriage. His first miracle is at a wedding.
Perhaps couples need to reflect back on when they first fell in love and how easy it was to spend hours with each other. You had no problem publicly demonstrating your affection and love for each other, uttering those little endearing terms you had for one another. Over the years, that may have tarnished. I hope not. If you fail to tell each other you love each other daily, you will find yourselves drifting further and further apart. You have to work on marriage, and your relationship has to be a priority.
Otherwise, you end up like the husband who left his wife, went out, and bought a brand-new red convertible. He was test-driving the car and had it up to 95 mph when he saw a state trooper behind him with his light flashing and siren blasting. The husband pulled over.
The Trooper pulled in behind him and walked up to the speeder.
“Sir,” he said, looking at his watch. “My shift ends in 15 minutes and it is Friday and I’m off for the next two days. If you can give me a reason why you were speeding that I have not heard before, I’ll let you go.”
The man looked at the Trooper and said, “Last week my wife ran off with a State Trooper and I thought you were bringing her back.”
“Have a nice day, Sir and drive slower.”
Yes, it is a humorous story and a good laugh. But remember the miracle in today’s gospel and the sacredness of the sacrament of marriage. You have to work on marriage, and your relationship has to be a priority. Blessings to all married couples!
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