God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! 

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) [19 January 2025].

*First Reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah (62,1-5)

How much tenderness God shows to the people of Israel who could truly feel abandoned, especially in the context of their return from exile! In fact, although they returned from Babylon in 538 B.C., the Temple was not rebuilt until 521, and a sense of abandonment crept in during this waiting period. To counter this despair, Isaiah, inspired by God, writes this splendid text to proclaim that God has not forgotten his people nor his beloved city. And soon all will know! "Yes, as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your children marry you; as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you". The prophet Isaiah certainly does not lack audacity! Twice in these few verses, loving desire appears as an expression of God's feelings towards his people. Divine love emerges in these courageous expressions: "They will no longer call you 'forsaken', nor will your land be called 'ravaged', but they will call you 'my desired' (literally: my desire is in you), and your land will be called 'married i.e. my bride', for the Lord finds in you his delight (rather his desire for love) and your land will have a bridegroom." Here is a real declaration of love! Not even a bridegroom would say more to his beloved: you shall be my bride... You shall be as beautiful as a crown, as a golden diadem in my hands... you shall be my delight. How can we not be struck by the beauty of the vocabulary and the poetry that transpires from this text? We find in it the parallelism of phrases, so characteristic of the Psalms: 'For Zion's sake I will not be silent, / for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest... You shall be a shining crown in the hand of the Lord / a royal diadem in the fingers of your God... You shall be called 'My Favourite', and your land shall be called 'Married'. For the Lord has chosen you,/ and your land shall have a bridegroom'.

This text could be called God's 'love poem' and the prophet Isaiah exercised prophetic ministry between 740 BC and 701 BC during the reign of various kings of Judah including Ozias, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah at a time of great political changes and threats mainly due to the expansion of the 'empire of the Assyrians. Isaiah was the first to have the audacity to use such language. Although God loves mankind with such great love, this was true from the beginning, yet mankind was not ready to understand him. The revelation of God as bridegroom, as well as that of God-the-Father, was only possible after several centuries of biblical history. At the beginning of the Covenant between God and his people, this notion would have been ambiguous. Other peoples too easily conceived their gods in the image of men and their family affairs. Rather, at an early stage of revelation, it was necessary to discover the One God who was totally Other than man and to accept his Covenant. It was therefore the prophet Hosea, the first to compare the people of Israel to a bride. He defined as "adulteries" the infidelities of the people, that is, their relapses into idolatry. After him, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Second Isaiah and the Third Isaiah (author of the text we are reading today) developed the theme of the wedding between God and his people; in their writings we find the whole vocabulary of the nuptial: the affectionate names, the wedding garment, the bride's crown, fidelity, but also jealousy, adultery.

Here are a few examples: Hosea writes: "You shall call me 'my husband'... I will make you my bride forever... in righteousness and in law, in faithfulness and in tenderness" (2:18.21). In the second Isaiah we read: 'Your bridegroom is the one who created you... Can you reject the woman of your youth? In my eternal fidelity I show you my tenderness." (Is 54:5...8). The most impressive text on this theme is surely the Song of Songs: it is presented as a long love dialogue, composed of seven poems. Actually, at no point are the two lovers identified, but Jewish tradition interprets it as a parable of God's love for humanity. The proof is that this text is proclaimed during the celebration of Passover, the great feast of God's covenant with his people and, through them, with all humanity. In today's passage, one of the bridegroom's favourite pastimes seems to be giving new names to his beloved. You know how important naming is in human relationships: what I cannot or do not know how to name does not exist for me.  Naming someone means already knowing them; and when the relationship with a person deepens, it is not uncommon to feel the need to give them a nickname. In couple or family life, diminutives and nicknames play an important role. Even the Bible reflects this fundamental experience of human life; the name has enormous importance, because it reveals the mystery of the person, his or her profound essence, vocation and mission. The meaning of the name of the main characters is often explained: for instance, the angel announces that Jesus' name means 'God saves', indicating that this child will save humanity in the name of God. Sometimes God changes someone's name when he entrusts him with a new mission: Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah, Jacob becomes Israel and Simon becomes Peter. In today's text, therefore, it is God who gives new names to Jerusalem: from "forsaken" it becomes "my joy", from "ravaged land" it becomes "married". 

*Responsorial Psalm (from Ps 95/96, 1-2a, 2b-3. 7-8a, 9a-10)

This psalm invites us to contemplate the glory of God: his salvation, his wonders, his power. 'Sing to the Lord a new song... sing to the Lord, bless his name'". There is nothing surprising about this: in Israel, in fact, it is a constant habit to recall God's work throughout the centuries to deliver his people from all that hinders their happiness. From day to day Israel proclaims its salvation... from day to day Israel remembers God's works, his wonders, that is, his ceaseless work of deliverance... from day to day Israel testifies that God has delivered it first from Egypt and then from all forms of slavery. And the most terrible of all slaveries is to mistake who God is, to put one's trust in false values, in false gods that can only disappoint, in idols. Israel has the immense privilege, the extraordinary honour, the joy of knowing and proclaiming that "the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" (as stated in the Jewish profession of faith, the Shema Israel). And faith in Him is man's only way to happiness. This is the message Israel conveys to the world: "Say among the nations: The Lord reigns!" 

Let us take up the expression: "Say among the nations". In biblical language, the nations or the Gentiles indicate all peoples other than Israel, the so-called goyîm, i.e. the rest of humanity, the uncircumcised, as St Paul says. In the biblical texts, the term goyîm takes on different, sometimes even contradictory meanings. Sometimes it has a decidedly negative meaning: for example, the book of Deuteronomy speaks of the "abominations of the Gentiles" and this condemnation refers to their polytheism, their religious practices in general and, in particular, human sacrifices. The chosen people must remain faithful to God without compromise, discovering the true face of the one God. For this reason, in the first phase of revelation, it is necessary to avoid any contact with the nations or peoples, perceived as a risk of idolatrous contagion. The history of Israel shows how real this risk was several times! Moreover, in the mentality of the time, where deities were seen as allies in conflicts, it was inconceivable to imagine a God who sided with all peoples at once. In this psalm, however, note that the term 'peoples' is no longer negative: the 'peoples' are all those who do not belong to the people of Israel, but who are nevertheless recipients of God's salvation, just like the chosen people. This psalm, therefore, was composed relatively late, probably after the exile in Babylon, when Israel was beginning to realise that the one God is the God of the whole universe and of all mankind, and that his salvation is not reserved for Israel.

"Announce ... to all peoples tell of his wonders". To arrive at this understanding, God led the chosen people through a long and patient pedagogical journey. Israel gradually opened its heart, accepting that its God was also the God of all people, committed to seeking the happiness of all, not just its own. The chosen people has understood that it is the elder brother, not the only son: its vocation is to pave the way for other peoples in the long march of humanity towards God. And the day will come when all peoples, without exception, will recognise God as the one God. Then, all mankind will place its trust in Him alone. The psalm expresses this universal hope: "Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and power, give to the Lord the glory of his name". 

The last verses of the psalm, which we do not read this Sunday, offer a kind of anticipation of the end of time because the day will come when all creation will celebrate the glory of God: "Let heaven rejoice! Let the earth rejoice! Let the waves of the sea quiver, / let the fields be rejoicing, and the trees of the forest dance for joy before the Lord". On that day we shall see even the trees dance! The present, however, is not easy. One must persevere in faith and testify to one's faith before the peoples/ nations, and the fight against idolatry, against false gods, is never completely won. How timely is this psalm! 

*Second Reading from the First Letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (1Cor 12:4-1)

This letter to the Corinthians is twenty centuries old but surprisingly relevant today. How to remain a Christian in a world that has completely different values? How to discern, among the ideas circulating, those that are compatible with the Christian faith? How to coexist with non-Christians without failing in charity, but also without losing our identity? The world around us talks about sex and money... How can we evangelise it? These were the questions of the Christians of Corinth, newly converted in a predominantly pagan world. They are in truth the same questions we ask ourselves today, we Christians in a society that no longer emphasises the values of the gospel, and Paul's answers concern us all. He addresses divisions in the community, the problems of married life especially when spouses do not share the same faith, as well as the urgency of remaining steadfast in the face of the proliferation of new ideas and emerging new religious cults. Within each of these topics, Paul puts things in their proper place. However, as always, when dealing with concrete topics, Paul reminds us first of all where to lay the foundation, namely in Baptism. John the Baptist had already well predicted this when he spoke of the Baptism inaugurated by Christ by which we are immersed in the fire of the Spirit (Matt 3:11), and it is the Spirit who now acts in us according to our differences. Paul reiterates it: 'all these things the one and the same Spirit works, distributing them to each one as he wills'.  In Corinth, as in the rest of the Hellenistic world, people idolised intelligence and aspired to wisdom often through philosophy. To those who sought to attain wisdom through rigorous reasoning, Paul replies that true wisdom, which is the only knowledge that counts, is not attained through discourse, but is a gift of God given through the Spirit. There is therefore no reason to boast about it: everything is a gift. The word 'gift' (or the verb 'to give') appears no less than seven times in this text! Although such a concept exists in the Bible, Paul however takes up what Israel had already understood - namely that only God knows and reveals true wisdom - and his novelty consists in speaking of the Spirit as a Person. He thus totally detaches himself from the philosophical speculations of the time: he does not propose a new school of philosophy, but announces Someone, and the gifts distributed to the members of the Christian community are not about power or knowledge, but a new inner existence. In this passage, where the name of the Spirit recurs seven times, although addressed to the Corinthians, he does not speak of them, but exclusively of the Spirit at work in the Christian community, who with patience and constancy orients everyone towards the Father (he inspires us to say 'Abba' - Father) and towards our brothers. Paul makes it clear that everyone is given a particular manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. The Corinthians, attracted by extraordinary spiritual phenomena, are thus brought back to the essential: the goal is the good of all, because the Spirit is Love in person. There are diversities of charisms, but only one is the Spirit; there are diversities of ministries, but only one is the Lord; there are diversities of operations, but only one is God, who works all things in all. And so our diversity makes us capable, each in our own way, of manifesting the one Love of God. One of the lessons of this text of Paul is to learn to rejoice in the differences that represent the many facets of what Love enables us to achieve, while respecting the uniqueness of each one. So consider the variety of races, languages, gifts, arts, inventions... such diversity is the richness of the Church and the world, provided it is lived in love. God wants humanity to be like an orchestra: one and the same inspiration, different and complementary expressions, different instruments that create a symphony as long as they all play in the same key; otherwise, you have a cacophony! The symphony Paul speaks of is the song of love that the Church is called upon to intone to the world. We could call it a 'hymn to love', just as there is the hymn to joy or the hymn to life by famous musicians. Complementarity in the Church is therefore not a matter of roles or functions to structure it with a well-defined organisation chart. It is something much more important and sublime: the mission entrusted to the Church to reveal Love. How timely is this text from St Paul in this week of prayer for Christian unity!

*From the Gospel according to John (Jn 2:1-11)

St John uses a different language from the other evangelists and one must learn to discover that important things are often said between the lines. For him, this first "sign" (as he calls it) of Jesus at Cana is of enormous relevance: it alone evokes the great mystery of God's plan for humanity, the mystery of the new creation, the mystery of the Covenant and Wedding between God and his people. The Prologue, that is, the beginning of the first chapter of his gospel, is a great meditation on this mystery, and the account of the miracle at Cana is basically the same meditation expressed, however, in the form of a narrative. These two texts, placed at the beginning of the gospel and reread in symmetrical contemplation, help us to introduce ourselves to the understanding of all that will follow. We shall therefore try to read the Wedding at Cana narrative with the Prologue in mind and in our hearts. These two texts "embrace" the "inaugural week" of Jesus' public life. A week that begins with John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan being questioned by the Pharisees about his mission while already announcing the coming of Jesus. The next day, he sees him approaching and recognises him as "the Son of God, the one who baptises in the Holy Spirit" (Jn 1:33-34). The next day (note John's precision that seems to recall the first chapter of Genesis where the sacred author each time notes: "it was evening and it was morning"), two other disciples of John the Baptist leave his group to follow Jesus, who invites them to spend the evening with him. The following day, Jesus leaves for Galilee with some disciples. In Galilee, three days later, the miracle of Cana takes place and the evangelist begins the account by saying: "On the third day there was a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. If we count the days from the beginning we have arrived at the "seventh day" and the reference to a week or a "seventh day" cannot be accidental because the "seventh day" always recalls the fulfilment of creation. "This was the beginning of the signs performed by Jesus": we are at the end of the passage and John notes that it was the beginning; also in the Prologue he states: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Everything was made through him and without him nothing was made of what exists'. We are here in the context of the seven days of creation, while in the wedding feast of Cana the hour of the wedding between God and humanity is noted, showing that this event takes place on the seventh day of the new creation. At Cana Jesus does not merely multiply the wine, but creates it. Just as at the beginning of all things, the Word, facing God, had created the world, now he inaugurates a new creation. And it is a wedding! The parallelism then continues: on the sixth day of Creation, God had completed his work by creating the human couple in his image; on the seventh day of the new creation, Jesus participates in a wedding feast and is a way of saying that God's creative project is ultimately a covenant project, a wedding project. (Most probably the first reading - Isaiah 62, which speaks of Israel as the "joy of God" and of God as the bridegroom of his people - was placed precisely in relation to this Gospel page).  The Church Fathers saw in the miracle of Cana the fulfilment of the divine promise: here God's wedding with humanity begins.  But what does the term 'the hour' mean?  For John it is a symbolic term of crucial value because it refers to the Hour in which God's plan is fulfilled in Christ. When Jesus says to Mary: "Woman, what do you want of me? My hour has not yet come' he is thinking of his greatest mission: to bring about the wedding between God and humanity. The phrase (Woman, what do you want of me?) is surprising and has generated much discussion. In Greek, the phrase means "What is between you and me?", i.e. "you cannot understand". Here Jesus is confronted with the mystery of his mission: should he perform a miracle, create wine, and thus reveal his divine nature? In this scene one might catch an echo of the temptations in the synoptic Gospels: in the desert, Jesus had refused to turn stones into bread, because that would have been a miracle for himself. At Cana, however, he creates wine for the joy of others. The Son of God performs miracles only for the good of humanity. Then there is the reference to the "third day" which is certainly not accidental. It refers to the resurrection and links Cana to Easter. It is there, in the death and resurrection of Christ, that the Covenant will be definitively sealed. When John says: "And he manifested his glory", he alludes to the definitive glory of the Resurrection. In this perspective, Cana becomes the first visible sign of Christ's glory, a prelude to the full glory of the Risen One. 

A few final notes on a text that would merit much longer reflection

1 - "On the third day": by itself, this precision is certainly a message; again, it is not a simple anecdotal entry to fill a diary, but a theological meditation: the memory of the disciples is forever marked by a certain third day, that of the Resurrection. It thus refers us to the other end, so to speak, of Jesus' public life: to the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. It is a way for John to tell us that there, and only there, God's Covenant with humanity will be definitively sealed and his wedding with humanity will be celebrated. Moreover, the last phrase, "He manifested his glory", is also an allusion to the Resurrection. In the Prologue John said: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory"... . It was precisely at Cana that the disciples first saw the glory of Jesus, in anticipation of the final manifestation of the glory of God in the face of the Christ, dead and risen.

2. The evangelist John specifies that Cana is in Galilee, which broadens the perspective considerably: Galilee, traditionally, is considered the land of the pagans, a crossroads of peoples; Isaiah called it "the land of the shadow, the Galilee of the Gentiles". God therefore marries the whole of humanity, not just a privileged few.

3. "Woman, what do you want of me?"  Let us not try to minimise the obvious vividness of this reaction of the Son towards his mother. In Hebrew, this phrase generally expresses a difference of opinion, sometimes even hostility (Jdc 11:12; Mk 1:24; 2 Sam 16:10; 2 Sam 19:23); however, let us recognise that these are extreme cases. Jesus' reflection might be more like that of the widow of Sarepta towards Elijah at the time of her son's death (1 Kings 17:18): she considers the prophet's presence as an inappropriate intervention. Nevertheless, the difficulty remains: does Jesus, meek and humble of heart, lack respect for his mother? Indeed, perhaps there is here an implicit admission of a genuine inner conflict on the part of the Son concerning his mission. He who did not allow himself to perform miracles for his own benefit (such as turning stones into bread) should here turn water into wine? Here we touch upon the depths of Christ's mystery, a mystery that he himself gradually discovered: being fully human, he had to grow little by little, like each of us, in the understanding of his mission.

4. The water jars at Cana are made of stone, and John intentionally emphasises this: the earthenware jugs were used for drinking water, while the stone jars were intended for water for ritual ablutions. It is precisely this water, symbol of the covenant, that was transformed into the wedding wine.

5. The disciples will only discover the miracle later, because the only ones who are really aware of the fact, as St John points out, are the servants (verse 9): they knew it, so to speak, "in their flesh", because it was they who drew the water, who carried it, and all this in blind obedience, without perhaps understanding what the water would be used for. Of course, it should not surprise us too much that the poor, in this case the last - the servants - are the first to be aware of God's plan!

+Giovanni D’Ercole