Homily for Sunday, January 14, 2007

(John 2)

Weddings are not only times of joy. They are also moments of peace. We see this portrayed in the movie, “My Big, Fat Greek Wedding.” Two very different families come to like each other on the occasion of the wedding of their children. The Greek-American family of the bride is loud and large. In contrast, the blue-blood parents of the groom are sedate. But by the end of the wedding feast everyone is dancing together. In the gospel today a much more momentous peace emerges at a wedding banquet.

Jesus arrives at the wedding in Cana with his disciples. They always travel together. Discipleship by definition is to keep one’s eyes on the teacher in order to learn from him. Jesus’ disciples stand apart from those of other teachers because he has called them personally. And so are we called at baptism. “Carmen, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” a priest said pouring water over my head sixty years ago. As disciples, Jesus teaches us through the gospels that encapsulate his message.

The wedding feast comes to a roadblock. There is no more wine for the celebration. Wine cheers human hearts. The French have a saying, “A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine.” If that is so, then a wedding feast without wine is like three months of cloudy skies. We might change this analogy a bit, “A wedding feast without wine is like a society without justice.” It’s like Montgomery, Alabama, fifty-one years ago when an African-American woman who worked all day was told to cede her seat on a bus to a man simply because his skin was white.

But Montgomery was not to remain with this injustice. A Black preacher named Martin Luther King, Jr., told the people to resist racial discrimination. They organized a bus boycott. Black people would not ride city buses until racial discrimination stopped. Many would walk to work and to visit their families. They would walk from one side of the city to the other if necessary, rather than submit to racial subjugation. They practiced discipline, the mark of discipleship. Did it hurt them? Not that much. As one elderly person put it during the bus boycott, “My feet may be hurting, but my soul is at rest.” In the gospel Jesus’ mother tells the servers at the wedding to do whatever Jesus tells them. Discipleship entails developing the discipline of doing whatever Jesus tells us.

Jesus then transforms the water into wine. This miracle is not meant just to give everybody another drink. No, it is infinitely more welcome than that. The water in the six stone jars is to be used for ceremonial washing. It represents the Jewish law which, as St. Paul writes to the Romans, has no power to save us from sin. Transformed by Jesus into wine, however, it brings shalom, that is peace and well-being, to all. We partake of this wine at the Eucharist. From our coming together on Sundays (and on weekdays if possible) we become peacemakers in the world. At work we support efforts of taking grievances honestly and respectfully to those responsible. In the community we extend our helping hand to anyone in legitimate need.

Patty is just one of Christ’s disciples transformed by the Eucharist to bring peace to the world. She comes from Mexico but has made her home in southern California. She has four children and two part-time jobs. Still, she finds time to teach catechism to Spanish-speaking children. Through all her efforts family, church, and community are blessed with shalom.

In the long struggle for racial justice, African-Americans would remind themselves to “keep your eyes on the prize.” Our prize, the one whom we watch with more attention than dancers at a Greek wedding, is Jesus. He teaches us and transforms us. Without him our efforts at creating peace will hit a roadblock. With him our failures are rewarding and our successes bring the fullness of peace. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus.