Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - 18.1.04 Is 62,1-5; 1 Cor 12,4-11; Jn 2,1-11 Is Christmas a Wedding Banquet? A
wonderful deal. Today’s
Gospel story has a lot more than ‘changing water into wine’ The Liturgy celebrates this event as one with 3 other stories: Birth at
Bethlehem - Star leading the Magi & Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan River.
These 4 events, each in its way, tell us that God’s Son became truly incarnate
for us. At first, it may seem odd to include two events of the adult life of
Jesus in the ‘Birth’ Celebration of our Lord. But there is a reason and it
is to be found in the shifts of understanding across the centuries. The Birth of
Christ , as a purely human happening, came to be celebrated by the Church more
than 1000 years after Jesus’ birth. The first Crib was made by St. Francis of
Assisi, who died in 1229. Only since him, the
Church has given more importance on the human details of Christ’s
birth: with cribs & carols, stories & legends about Bethlehem, Angels,
Stable, Shepherds & Magi. The early Christians -well past the first
millennium- stressed more the concept of a wonderful exchange, the fact
that God has given us his very-self, in exchange for our poor, frail humanity.
This amazing commercial deal has never been heard-of before, &
is never to be repeated. It is something totally new, unheard, unprecedented
& straight from the super-abundant grace of God. It’s the New Covenant.
Shifts of meaning are necessary & to be expected. After all, Christmas Day
(December 25th) was adopted by the Church as the day of Christ’s birth for
purely practical reasons. During the winter solstice, ancient pagan Rome -as
indeed all prevailing cultures had done for thousands of years!- held a huge festival in honour of Helios, the God-Sun that
ever emerges at sun-rise (Natalis solis invicti). To offset this pagan culture
the early Christians introduced the feast of Christ’s Birth as true Sun &
true Light of the world. More
that water into wine.
The early Christians attached great importance to Christ’s Birth. They were
not concerned about historical or critical
research. In their enthusiasm, they allowed the meaning of
Jesus’appearing among us, to impact on them. In it they saw God himself, who
remaining creator of the universe, was born among us: a stark manger for his
cradle - a helpless child in need of milk - (& mind you, is something that
not even birds need for their survival!) - one who lived with no place to rest
his head & died naked on a cross for us. As they saw it, the Incarnation
touched & transformed humankind forever: God’s Son became one of us -
dwelt among us as one of us & as flesh & blood like us - took up &
lived in a fragile body like ours - assumed human substance & human
condition like us. To save us, He united himself to us, so intimately that he
carried us -as his own flesh, body, & substance- right up to the Cross,
through the resurrection and into eternal glory. In this sense the birth of
Christ has ennobled us: in it, we all have become substance & property of
Christ. And if we ask where is this logic derived from?, they point to the 4
events in which the Lord manifested his glory: Birth & Star, Baptism &
Wedding. In these 4 events, God’s wonderful deal is made known as one reality;
indeed it’s the wedding insight that gets the deepest recognition. In poetic
& exalted language the ancient Liturgy mixes the 4 events: “Today Christ
comes forth from Mary’s womb, like a Bridegroom from his Wedding Canopy
- Today the Church joins her Royal Bridegroom, who has made her worthy in
the River Jordan - Today the three Wise Men hasten to the Royal Wedding
bringing their splendid gifts - Today all the Wedding Guests
rejoice because Christ has changed water into wine”.
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