Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The gospel and all the readings today are a declaration of God’s love. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his disciples are with him. Mary plays a key role in this gospel, and it shows how Mary will help make you a Christian, a disciple of Christ. If you don’t have faith, it is impossible to love. You can love your friends and those who are like you and do what you want, but even the pagans do that. A man or woman of faith loves the enemy, and you don’t, so you are not yet a Christian. One day you will be one. In this miracle Jesus shows us what he can do for you so that you be a Christian. He turns water into wine.
Water has three properties. It is tasteless, colorless and odorless. Wine is the opposite. When you pour wine into a glass the first thing you notice is that is has color and then after seeing the color you notice the aroma. And lastly, it has taste. It is the opposite of water. This is the miracle of miracles. He changes water into something that has color, odor and wonderful taste. It shows us that he can take a sinful man and make him a holy one. He has the power to do it. He can take a man who cannot love and make of him a Christian who gives his life out of love for the other. He can change an unfaithful man into a faithful man. The one with a disordered sexuality into a chaste man or woman. An alcoholic into a sober man; one who is stingy to a generous person. This is what the Lord can do to each one of us.
This wedding celebration is wonderful, and it can give us hope and joy. Our Lord has the power to convert this situation because of the Virgin Mary. Jesus doesn’t notice that the wine is running out, only Mary. She intercedes with her Son for this couple. There is no wine means there is no joy. Wine at a wedding feast in those days is not meant to get drunk but something that brings joy, contentment, especially in a Mediterrean culture. Wine is a symbol of joy!
Mary says to the waiters, “Do whatever he tells you.” She probably knew from the book of Genesis when there were years of famine in Egypt and Pharoah told the people: “Go to Joseph, and do whatever he tells you.” She was married to a Joseph, whose name means, ‘God will add.’ Do you want to have wine, joy, happiness, do whatever he tells you! At the Last Supper Jesus says to love one another as I have loved you. If you want to be happy, if you want to have wine in your life, love one another. Probably women know this better than anyone because to love in a deep way is to give your life. Water means sin in this gospel. It has no taste, no smell, no color, which means you live sad, frustrated lives with no meaning, and it can be very depressing.
There is a moment in life that is the prototype of love: a pregnant woman. Even if there is a lot of difficulty during the nine months, at the moment of birth there is an incredible joy. Why? She is giving her life for the other. She feeds and nourishes the child out of love. Your husband also gives his life for the wife. He is ready to die for her. This kind of love which is not magical is the wine in a marriage. The logic of the world is let’s have the good wine now and save the poorer wine for later. But the logic of Jesus Christ is to enter by the narrow gate because the way to perdition is wide and most people follow that route. The good wine comes only when you suffer, only when you enter the cross. You don’t experience the good wine unless you suffer. To love is to suffer. The wide, easy road leads to perdition, but the good wine comes with difficulties, suffering, not as a punishment but as a way to learn how to love.
If you want to have this good wine, then love, don’t waste a second. Life if sad when there is no wine because it means there is no love. If you want to love but see that you cannot be patient. The gospel says there are six stone jars of water with twenty to thirty gallons of water. Jesus told the waiters to fill the jars to the brim, to the top. Water is sin as we said earlier so when the jars or your life are filled to the brim then where sin abounds, grace abounds even more, according to St. Paul. Jesus is not cheap; it is a huge amount of wine that he makes in this miracle. His love is overflowing. When the jars are filled, they cannot take another drop, when you are filled with sin and see no way out, then is when Christ does the miracle. He knows you cannot do it. No one can.
I have loved you first. You and I must have an experience of that love so we can love in return, without knowing we are loved when we were evil, it is impossible for us to love. Christ did not come to call the righteous, he came to call the sinners to conversion, to call all of us to love and to be transformed; this is how his glory is shown. When your jars are filled to the brim, don’t forget this gospel. When you think you will never change, when you believe God cannot love you that it is hopeless, remember this gospel. God is capable of transforming that awful water into the best of wine, then he make of you and me a true Christian.