Sunday Scripture Readings

Printer-friendly versionSend to friend SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME JANUARY 18 Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 96; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-12 OUR GOOD NEWS: God invites us to his wedding banquet, celebrating our "marriage" to him through Jesus. Since the time of the Old Testament prophet Hosea, marriage and the marriage feast served as the standard metaphor for Israel’s intimate covenant relationship with God. Although Israel as the virgin bride quickly became an adulteress through disobedience and infidelity, the Lord remained her faithful but abandoned husband. Today’s first reading transferred the realization of this marriage from the past to End Times. Only then would God’s kingdom of love and obedience be fully established on earth through a final outpouring of divine gracious power. Then, at last, the "Bridegroom will rejoice in his bride" at the everlasting Messianic marriage banquet. At Cana (Gospel), Jesus proclaimed by a prophetic-symbolic gesture that this long-awaited wedding was at last taking place. What Jewish cult and ritual could never do was brought about through the divine "glory manifested" in Jesus. Only through Jesus is there admission to the Messianic banquet (salvation) that celebrates the perfect union of God and His people (redemption). "The wine (of Judaism) ran out; the good (Final-Age) wine has been kept until now." Jesus’ "hour" — His Passion, death and exaltation through which God’s Kingdom was established — "had not yet come." The Cana miracle was, therefore, incomplete and only a foreshadowing, only the "beginning" of His signs. Nonetheless, the Final-Age community of the saved, the Church, was already being formed: "His disciples believed in Him." When the Cana miracle is understood on its own terms and according to the author’s intention, the primary theme is Christ-centered. He presides over the Final-Age banquet which celebrates the full covenant intimacy of God with His people. Secondary themes must be interpreted within this framework. The story addresses Christian marriage insofar as this sacrament symbolizes the union of Christ and his Church. The Eucharist is relevant because, as a sacred banquet, it is the sacramental anticipation of the heavenly banquet. Mary mediates between old and new covenants, summoning "the ministers" (rather than "waiters") to a new ministry as disciples of her Son. She is the Mother of the Church insofar as her presence and service were essential to its formation. In context of the first reading from Isaiah, today’s psalm epitomized God’s "marvelous deeds" in a new and intimate union, His "marriage" with His people. But this good news is not the only reason calling forth from us a radically "new song" of praise. All peoples, families of all nations, are now invited to join the Chosen People in "giving glory" to the Lord whose special goodness now extends worldwide. The psalm thus verbalizes the Church’s missionary proclamation, summoning the whole world to accept and to acclaim the Lord as their King. Thus, the second reading teaches that we are all called and empowered by the Spirit to serve others in special ways. The Church’s ministries, Paul insisted, are many and varied. Each of us has been given a charism (spiritual gift) empowering our service for the good of the community.

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