Reflection for Sunday – January 19, 2025
Readings: Isaiah 62: 1-5; 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11; John 2: 1-11
Preacher: Sr. Joan Sobala
In the bleak winter months of the early 1950’s, before Lent began and there seemed no reason to celebrate, the Parish of St. Hyacinth in Lackawanna N.Y. held a mock wedding. My grandfather, Valentine, was the principal organizer. He rented a hall and then left all the details to others.
Parishioners served as the priest, bride, groom and wedding party. After the mock wedding celebration, serious partying broke out. Abundant Polish food, a Polka band for dancing and a special troupe of young people dressed in costume, who danced a lively group dance called the Krakowiak. One year we were called back for 10 encores. We were that good!
The community needed an important reason to celebrate. Weddings were one such reason, whether real or made up. Around the world communities celebrate weddings because a wedding is an event like no other. It proclaims that this community has a future and is rooted in its own faith tradition.
Couples today do not generally think about the role of the faith community in a wedding. Granted that this may be an ideal, but for some it was more than an ideal. I recall from some years past, two couples who were committed members of the faith community who chose to marry at Sunday Mass. The profound meaning of the experience provided an electric moment for all present.
The couple in the Gospel today inspired happiness in the community and a sense of security. God has acted in their midst in bringing the bride and groom together, and the future was secured in the union of this man and this woman. Their marriage reminded the community of the love God had for them. We hear in Isaiah today “as the bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God rejoices over you”(Isaiah 62:5).
The wedding feast was already in progress in the Gospel when Mary noticed that the wine was running out. She turned to Jesus and He found Himself in a pivotal moment in His life. Jesus turned 56 gallons of water into wine—abundant, superior-quality wine. From the beginning, Jesus gave the best he could.
In our times, a phenomenon has arisen called a destination wedding. The bride and groom summon family and a select group of friends to a distant place for a romantic outdoor wedding, with only a sliver of the community present. In the evolution of thinking about weddings, the community is not deemed essential. There, on the beach or in the garden, a justice of the peace or a minister with some credentials officially hears the couple’s vows. The contract of marriage is made and witnessed.
But for Catholics, marriage is more than a contract. It is a sacrament. God is present in the couple’s giving of themselves to each other.
Weddings are events. Marriages happen slowly, over many months and years, through thick and thin, in sickness and health, in good times and in bad.
Marriages emerge between people who share their lives, until they are well and truly wed. The community offers them support, modelling, help in any number of ways, prayer.
Marriages are sometimes rocky. There were more than a few times that as the community watched, it seemed as though the marriage of my Uncle Al and Aunt Angie was crashing. But shortly after their 50th wedding anniversary, when my uncle was in the hospital, he confided to me “I love her more than ever.” He could say that not just because of their efforts, but because marriage is a sacramental gift of God and is supported by the faith community.
Some who read this today are not married—single, divorced or widowed.
Perhaps all this talk of weddings and marriage is difficult to hear or uninteresting to us. Yet each of us—no matter our relationships— is important to the community and a reflection of God’s love. Today, there are important take-aways for all of us.
In today’s Gospel of the Wedding Feast at Cana, we learned that Jesus stepped forward and did his best. What an important lesson for us while 2025 is still a new year: whether it be in offering hospitality, in seeking justice in our world or in living out our relationships, we are called upon to step forward in the community and in the name of God and do the best we can.
- Reflection for Sunday – January 19, 2025 - January 15, 2025
- Reflection for Sunday – September 1, 2024 - August 28, 2024
- Reflection for Sunday – January 28, 2024 - January 24, 2024
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