GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to John Jn 2:1-11
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from — although the servers who had drawn the water knew —, the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.
ANGELUS 16 January 2022 Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
The Gospel of today’s liturgy recounts the episode of the wedding at Cana, where Jesus transformed water into wine for the joy of the newlyweds. And the Gospel ends: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (Jn 2:11). We notice that the evangelist John does not speak of a miracle, that is, of a powerful and extraordinary deed that causes wonder. He writes that a sign took place at Cana, that sparked the faith of his disciples. We can, then, ask ourselves: What is a “sign” according to the Gospel?
A sign is a clue that reveals God’s love, that does not call attention to the power of the action, but to the love that caused it. It teaches us something about God’s love that is always near, tender and compassionate. The first sign took place when a couple faced a difficulty on the most important day of their lives. Right in the middle of the feast, an essential element was missing, the wine, and their joy ran the risk of being dampened among the criticism and dissatisfaction of the guests. Just imagine how a wedding feast could continue only with water!. It is terrible! What a bad impression the newlyweds would make.
It is Our Lady who became aware of the problem and discretely brought it to Jesus’ attention. And he intervened without fanfare, almost without being noticed. Everything took place with discretion, everything took place “behind the scenes” — Jesus told the servants to fill the jars with water, which became wine. This is how God acts: with closeness and with discretion. Jesus’ disciples understood this: they saw that, thanks to him, the wedding banquet became even more beautiful. And they also saw the way Jesus acted — the way he served in hiddenness. This is how Jesus is — he helps us, he serves us in hiddenness, in that moment, so much so that it was the bridegroom who was complimented for the good wine. No one noticed, only the servants. This is how the seed of faith began to develop within them — that is, they believed that God, God’s love, was present in Jesus.
--->It is beautiful to think that the first sign Jesus accomplished was not an extraordinary healing or a miracle in the temple of Jerusalem, but a gesture that responded to a simple and concrete need of common people, a domestic gesture. Let us put it this way — a miracle done on “tip toes”, discretely, silently. He is ready to help us, to lift us up again. And then, if we are attentive to these “signs”, we will be conquered by his love and we will become his disciples.
But there is another distinctive characteristic about the sign at Cana. Generally, the wine provided at the end of the feast was the one that was less good — this is still done today. At that point, people do not distinguish as well whether it is good wine or wine that has been watered down a little. Jesus, instead, makes sure that the feast ends with the best wine. Symbolically, this tells us that God wants what is better for us, he wants us to be happy. He does not set limits and he does not ask us for interest. There is no place for ulterior motives or demands placed on the newlyweds, in Jesus’ sign. No, the joy Jesus brought to their hearts was complete and disinterested joy. It was not “watered down joy”!
I suggest an exercise that can be very good for us. Today, let us try to rummage through our memories, looking for signs that the Lord accomplished in my life. Let each of us say: what are the signs the Lord accomplished in my life? What are the hints of his presence, the signs that he did to show us that he loves us? Let us think about that difficult moment in which God let me experience his love… And let us ask ourselves: with which discrete and loving signs did he let me feel his tenderness? When did I feel the Lord nearer? When did I feel his tenderness and his compassion? Every one of us has these moments in our personal history. Let us go in search of these signs, let us remember them. How did I discover his closeness? How did great joy remain in my heart? Let us relive the moments in which we experienced his presence and Mary’s intercession. May she, the Mother who is always attentive as at Cana, help us treasure the signs of God’s presence in our lives.
M. T. BELLO - Holy Mary, Woman of New Wine, how many times do we not experience that the banquet of life is languishing and joy disappears from the faces of the guests! It is the wine of the feast that is lacking. On the table there is everything: but, without the juice of the vine, we have lost the wish for bread that tastes like wheat. We chew with annoyance the products of wealth: together with the greed of the wealthy and with the anger of who is not hungry. The meals of our kitchen have lost their old tastes: also the exotic fruit has no attraction for us. You know very well what the cause of this is; Our senses are not what they used to be. We have no more wine. The smell of the wine does not attract us any longer. The old cellars do not ferment any more. The empty wineskins contain only vinegar. Have compassion on us, and grant us once more the taste for things. Only in this way will the jars of our existence will be filled to the brim with good wine. The taste for living and for making live will finally satisfy us.
Holy Mary, Woman of new wine, so impatient for change who in Cana of Galilee provoked before the time the greatest episode of all times, obliging Jesus to give proof of Easter. You are for us the symbol of youth, because it is proper to youth to perceive those things that are no more useful, and to bring about renewals that are obtained solely by overthrowing the old, and not by restoring in the laboratory. Free us, we beg you, from easy satisfaction, from small conversions that are not costly, from comfortable patches. Preserve us from the false security of the fence, from the annoyance of repetitive rituals
FAUSTI - This narration shows us "where the Lord and His Glory dwells". In joy and love, not in the enclosure of the temple, reduced to a religious supermarket. This initial scene, like that of the Baptism in the Synoptics, immediately wants to help us to understand that God is scandalously different from what we think. The first "sign" of the Son of God consists in adding more than 600 litres of wine to a banquet! What would the Baptist, the desert ascetic, have said? With all the problems of hunger that there are in the world, alcoholism aside, he couldn't do something more useful and less useless? Also, why to give wine and joy , instead of preaching abstinence and commitment?The third day is in the Gospels that of the Resurrection, of the definitive intervention of God. The wedding is the most beautiful image of the Alliance between God and His people, in a Love stronger than any infidelity and than death itself. Cana recalls qanàh (to acquire), allusion to the people that God has acquired for Himself. The Mother "was there". like the six hydrias of stone, made to contain that water that will become beautiful wine. She is called mother by the narrator and "woman" by Jesus. "Mother" indicates the relationship with the Son, to whom she gives her life, "woman" (bride) the relationship with the Bridegroom, from whose corresponded comes out Son's life. Cana recalls qanàh (to acquire), an allusion to the people that God has acquired. Mary, being a mother, represents the people of God, from whose flesh comes the Messiah, as the bride she is the daughter of Zion, who loves and awaits the Bridegroom, the Lord. Because of her solicitude, the wedding feast finds its fullness instead of disappearing. It is important to invite the Lord to our feast. Otherwise, there is not the One who, as invited, makes Himself, with delicacy and discretion, the host, giving us "the beautiful wine". "Six stone water jars of stone were there" the details are not superfluous. They are respectively a recalling to the creation of man, accomplished on the sixth day, to the law written on stone plates and to the rites that it prescribes. Even the jars are there, as the Mother of Jesus. They recall the Baptism of the Baptist, who came to baptize so that the One upon whom the Spirit descends and dwells , would be revealed: Jesus did not come to abolish, but to fulfill the Old Covenant (Mt 5:17) which requires the observance of the law. This, in turn, is recapitulated in the 613 precepts. The Word pervades every time and forms the very structure of man, in his very heart. But the Law is fully fulfilled only by love (Rom 13:10). The jars, as we know now, were empty. Empty as the expectation that didn't meet the Expected, as the command of love that is not accomplished, as the covenant broken by the sin, as the bride without the groom. The same law can be observed in all prescriptions, as the older brother does, but with resentment and anger, without love and without even suspecting that God is joy and celebration, symphony and dance. Jesus orders us to fill our jars with water: the waiting of Israel in this way is filled with the waiting of every man.In it all creation opens up to its future, to the wine of the seventh day which the Son of Man offers in abundance. The master of the table represents Israel and its masters, experts of the promise, who are surprised to find the goodness of the wine that the servants have drawn from it. The master of the table, like the Jews, ignores " from where" the beautiful wine comes. It is like the Spirit, like Jesus Himself, who no one knows where He comes from and where He goes (3:8). Those who have taken water know that everything comes from having obeyed Jesus, following the words of Mary.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFrom the Gospel according to John
Jn 2:1-11
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
“They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her,
“Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servers,
“Do whatever he tells you.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,
each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus told them,
“Fill the jars with water.”
So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them,
“Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.”
So they took it.
And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,
without knowing where it came from
— although the servers who had drawn the water knew —,
the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,
“Everyone serves good wine first,
and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;
but you have kept the good wine until now.”
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee
and so revealed his glory,
and his disciples began to believe in him.
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 16 January 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
The Gospel of today’s liturgy recounts the episode of the wedding at Cana, where Jesus transformed water into wine for the joy of the newlyweds. And the Gospel ends: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (Jn 2:11). We notice that the evangelist John does not speak of a miracle, that is, of a powerful and extraordinary deed that causes wonder. He writes that a sign took place at Cana, that sparked the faith of his disciples. We can, then, ask ourselves: What is a “sign” according to the Gospel?
A sign is a clue that reveals God’s love, that does not call attention to the power of the action, but to the love that caused it. It teaches us something about God’s love that is always near, tender and compassionate. The first sign took place when a couple faced a difficulty on the most important day of their lives. Right in the middle of the feast, an essential element was missing, the wine, and their joy ran the risk of being dampened among the criticism and dissatisfaction of the guests. Just imagine how a wedding feast could continue only with water!. It is terrible! What a bad impression the newlyweds would make.
It is Our Lady who became aware of the problem and discretely brought it to Jesus’ attention. And he intervened without fanfare, almost without being noticed. Everything took place with discretion, everything took place “behind the scenes” — Jesus told the servants to fill the jars with water, which became wine. This is how God acts: with closeness and with discretion. Jesus’ disciples understood this: they saw that, thanks to him, the wedding banquet became even more beautiful. And they also saw the way Jesus acted — the way he served in hiddenness. This is how Jesus is — he helps us, he serves us in hiddenness, in that moment, so much so that it was the bridegroom who was complimented for the good wine. No one noticed, only the servants. This is how the seed of faith began to develop within them — that is, they believed that God, God’s love, was present in Jesus.
--->It is beautiful to think that the first sign Jesus accomplished was not an extraordinary healing or a miracle in the temple of Jerusalem, but a gesture that responded to a simple and concrete need of common people, a domestic gesture. Let us put it this way — a miracle done on “tip toes”, discretely, silently. He is ready to help us, to lift us up again. And then, if we are attentive to these “signs”, we will be conquered by his love and we will become his disciples.
EliminaBut there is another distinctive characteristic about the sign at Cana. Generally, the wine provided at the end of the feast was the one that was less good — this is still done today. At that point, people do not distinguish as well whether it is good wine or wine that has been watered down a little. Jesus, instead, makes sure that the feast ends with the best wine. Symbolically, this tells us that God wants what is better for us, he wants us to be happy. He does not set limits and he does not ask us for interest. There is no place for ulterior motives or demands placed on the newlyweds, in Jesus’ sign. No, the joy Jesus brought to their hearts was complete and disinterested joy. It was not “watered down joy”!
I suggest an exercise that can be very good for us. Today, let us try to rummage through our memories, looking for signs that the Lord accomplished in my life. Let each of us say: what are the signs the Lord accomplished in my life? What are the hints of his presence, the signs that he did to show us that he loves us? Let us think about that difficult moment in which God let me experience his love… And let us ask ourselves: with which discrete and loving signs did he let me feel his tenderness? When did I feel the Lord nearer? When did I feel his tenderness and his compassion? Every one of us has these moments in our personal history. Let us go in search of these signs, let us remember them. How did I discover his closeness? How did great joy remain in my heart? Let us relive the moments in which we experienced his presence and Mary’s intercession. May she, the Mother who is always attentive as at Cana, help us treasure the signs of God’s presence in our lives.
M. T. BELLO - Holy Mary,
EliminaWoman of New Wine,
how many times do we not experience
that the banquet of life is languishing
and joy disappears from the faces of the guests!
It is the wine of the feast that is lacking.
On the table there is everything:
but, without the juice of the vine, we have lost
the wish for bread that tastes like wheat.
We chew with annoyance the products of wealth:
together with the greed of the wealthy
and with the anger of who is not hungry.
The meals of our kitchen
have lost their old tastes:
also the exotic fruit has no attraction for us.
You know very well
what the cause of this is;
Our senses are not what they used to be.
We have no more wine.
The smell of the wine
does not attract us any longer.
The old cellars do not ferment any more.
The empty wineskins contain only vinegar.
Have compassion on us,
and grant us once more the taste for things.
Only in this way will the jars of our existence will
be filled to the brim with good wine.
The taste for living and for making live
will finally satisfy us.
Holy Mary,
Woman of new wine,
so impatient for change
who in Cana of Galilee provoked before the time
the greatest episode of all times,
obliging Jesus
to give proof of Easter.
You are for us the symbol of youth,
because it is proper to youth
to perceive those things that are no more useful,
and to bring about renewals that are obtained solely
by overthrowing the old,
and not by restoring in the laboratory.
Free us, we beg you, from easy satisfaction,
from small conversions that are not costly,
from comfortable patches.
Preserve us from the false security of the fence,
from the annoyance of repetitive rituals
FAUSTI - This narration shows us "where the Lord and His Glory dwells".
RispondiEliminaIn joy and love, not in the enclosure of the temple, reduced to a religious supermarket.
This initial scene, like that of the Baptism in the Synoptics, immediately wants to help us to understand that God is scandalously different from what we think.
The first "sign" of the Son of God consists in adding more than 600 litres of wine to a banquet! What would the Baptist, the desert ascetic, have said? With all the problems of hunger that there are in the world, alcoholism aside, he couldn't do something more useful and less useless?
Also, why to give wine and joy , instead of preaching abstinence and commitment?The third day is in the Gospels that of the Resurrection, of the definitive intervention of God. The wedding is the most beautiful image of the Alliance between God and His people, in a Love stronger than any infidelity and than death itself. Cana recalls qanàh (to acquire), allusion to the people that God has acquired for Himself.
The Mother "was there". like the six hydrias of stone, made to contain that water that will become beautiful wine. She is called mother by the narrator and "woman" by Jesus. "Mother" indicates the relationship with the Son, to whom she gives her life, "woman" (bride) the relationship with the Bridegroom, from whose corresponded comes out Son's life.
Cana recalls qanàh (to acquire), an allusion to the people that God has acquired.
Mary, being a mother, represents the people of God, from whose flesh comes the Messiah, as the bride she is the daughter of Zion, who loves and awaits the Bridegroom, the Lord.
Because of her solicitude, the wedding feast finds its fullness instead of disappearing.
It is important to invite the Lord to our feast.
Otherwise, there is not the One who, as invited, makes Himself, with delicacy and discretion, the host, giving us "the beautiful wine".
"Six stone water jars of stone were there" the details are not superfluous. They are respectively a recalling to the creation of man, accomplished on the sixth day, to the law written on stone plates and to the rites that it prescribes.
Even the jars are there, as the Mother of Jesus.
They recall the Baptism of the Baptist, who came to baptize so that the One upon whom the Spirit descends and dwells , would be revealed: Jesus did not come to abolish, but to fulfill the Old Covenant (Mt 5:17) which requires the observance of the law. This, in turn, is recapitulated in the 613 precepts.
The Word pervades every time and forms the very structure of man, in his very heart.
But the Law is fully fulfilled only by love (Rom 13:10).
The jars, as we know now, were empty. Empty as the expectation that didn't meet the Expected, as the command of love that is not accomplished, as the covenant broken by the sin, as the bride without the groom.
The same law can be observed in all prescriptions, as the older brother does, but with resentment and anger, without love and without even suspecting that God is joy and celebration, symphony and dance.
Jesus orders us to fill our jars with water: the waiting of Israel in this way is filled with the waiting of every man.In it all creation opens up to its future, to the wine of the seventh day which the Son of Man offers in abundance. The master of the table represents Israel and its masters, experts of the promise, who are surprised to find the goodness of the wine that the servants have drawn from it.
The master of the table, like the Jews, ignores " from where" the beautiful wine comes. It is like the Spirit, like Jesus Himself, who no one knows where He comes from and where He goes (3:8).
Those who have taken water know that everything comes from having obeyed Jesus, following the words of Mary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sJHwnUyZuM GLORY VIVALDI
RispondiElimina