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Saturday, January 19, 2019

2nd Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 20.01.2019

Isaiah 62:1-5 / 1 Cor 12:4-11 / John 2:1-12

There is this interesting and amusing thing that is trending on social media. It goes by the heading #10yearschallenge.

Essentially, it has two photos of the same subject, but the time gap between the two photos is 10 years apart, meaning to say that one photo was taken recently while the other was taken about 10 years ago.

With the two photos placed side by side, we will immediately notice the interesting and amusing change, especially when the subject is a person.

The background may be similar, the posture may be similar, but the difference is in the hairstyle (bushy hair vs receding hairline), the physique (skinny vs pot-belly).

What comes across obviously is change. For better or otherwise, the change is obvious as well as relentless. Almost everything will have to undergo some kind of change.

As much as change is relentless and unavoidable, the question is about the expectation of the change. For example, in a marriage, the wife might expect the husband to change from his bad old habits of smoking, drinking and gambling. But he does not and maybe even change for the worse. Or that the husband might expect the wife to remain pretty, shapely and docile. But whether she remains like that or not depends.

But whether with persons or with situations, change is inevitable. The question is about our expectations about what will happen with the change.

The gospel passage is about the event known as the Wedding at Cana, and among the guests were Mary, as well as Jesus and His disciples.

All was going well and expected to go on well when something happened – the wine ran out. Those four words “They have no wine” were certainly anxious words spoken by Mary to Jesus. 

At the happy wedding celebration, something changed, and that change brought about an anxiety and possible embarrassment for the wedding couple. It was certainly not a good way to start the first day of a marriage.

Other nasty things could also have happened, like finger-pointing, blame-pushing, voice-raising, but none of these would change the fact that there is no more wine.

So how? There were possible options but Mary chose the best option and that is to let Jesus know with those four words “They have no wine”.

The reply of Jesus was quite unexpected – “Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come yet.” Jesus was almost saying that He can do nothing about it.

But the response of Mary is even more unexpected, as she tells the servants “Do whatever He tells you”. Just what was Mary expecting?

As it is, change is constant and inevitable, and change is either for the better or for the worse.

To say that things cannot change is like saying that things can only change for the worse.

To say that things can change and change for the better is to have hope. And that hope is in Jesus who changed water into wine at the wedding in Cana when they ran out of wine, although He had said that His hour has not come yet.

But what is it that made Jesus change His mind? So the miracle is not so much the water changing into wine but rather Jesus changing His mind. So what made Jesus change His mind?

One reason could be what Mary said to the servants – Do whatever He tells you. Jesus would have heard that and so maybe He reconsidered His earlier decision. 

The other reason could also be that the servants took the trouble to fill those six big stone jars with water. It was an ordinary and even mundane task but the servants did as He told them to.

And with that Jesus changed His mind and water changed into wine.

What we can learn from the wedding at Cana is that, like Mary, let us have faith and hope in Jesus that things can change and things will change even if we think that Jesus is saying “No” to our prayers. Well, at the wedding in Cana, Jesus showed that He can change His mind.

The other thing that we can learn is from the lowly servants. They did as they were told. In a way, we can say that they helped Jesus change His mind. If they didn’t fill up the water, there will be no wine.

And so we may have prayed and prayed and prayed, but we have no answer. But we must keep on praying. And have we tried all possible means?

How about writing in a petition? It is surprising that some people have desperate needs but did not think of writing a humble petition form to Jesus.

Well, let us keep praying and writing and things will change and change for the better. 

Jesus will not take 10 years to answer our prayers or take that long to change His mind.

He is just waiting for the jars to be filled with water and with our prayers.