INCARNATION TOGETHER

On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Jesus and his disciples had likewise been invited to the celebration.  At a certain point the wine ran out, and Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.”

Jesus replied, “Woman, how does this concern of yours involve me?  My hour has not yet come.”

His mother instructed those waiting on table, “Do whatever he tells you.”

As prescribed for Jewish ceremonial washing, there were at hand six stone water jars, each one holding fifteen to twenty-five gallons.

Jesus ordered, “Fill those jars with water,” And they were filled to the brim.

“Now, draw some out and take it to the waiter in charge.”

The waiter in charge tasted the water made wine, without knowing where it came from; only the waiters knew, since they had drawn the water.     Then the waiter in charge called the groom over and remarked to him, “People usually serve the choice wine first; then when the guests have been drinking awhile, a lesser vintage.   What you have done is keep the choice wine until now!”

Thus did Jesus reveal his glory, and his disciples believed in him.          John 2:1-11

 

Today, we celebrate Jesus who became incarnate by uniting his divinity to our flesh.  The Intent of the Father says, “From all eternity, by virtue of a plan born of His mysterious and utterly gratuitous love for us, God wishes to call us to live in communion with Him, to give us His Spirit of love so that He might constantly live with us and in us...  called together to become the Body of Christ.” 

Tomorrow, Carmelite Sr. Mary Theresa celebrates her 50^th anniversary of profession.  A couple of weeks ago Sr. Hildegard's son Matthew and Heidi we married.  Four months ago we came to share this Monastery of the Incarnation when we were at the point we feeling our ‘wine had run out.’ But we have been filled to the brim with new wine, new life as we have seen Jesus’ glory revealed in the warm welcome of our Carmelite sisters. 

In each case Jesus is revealed and the loving dynamic of the Incarnation is manifested:  Sr. Theresa vowed to live in communion with Him.  Matthew and Heidi silently exchanged rings when no words could express their mysterious and gratuitous love for each other.  And we are called to live in communion with Him and become the Body of Christ.  And now together with the Carmelites, the Incarnation is broadened through divine charity filling our beings with overflowing wine: grace.

 

Celeste spoke of the union of our souls with the Incarnate Jesus in Eucharistic fashion.  Once, she began speaking of bread then switched to wine in her metaphor.  It made me think of our two communities coming together.   I paraphrase, “From all the wheat grains, as it were, of faithful souls you knead together a single Bread baked by the fire of your divine charity into your Humanity. You make us the bread of God and we, through union of love, live the life of God.  In this instance, these souls are brought by the Lord into the cellar of this excellent wine of union and grace and, carried away by this most exhilarating drink, live in the strength of the love of the Holy Spirit, and so together we cry out, ‘Eat, drink and be inebriated:  be transformed into the living God.’”  Flor. 32, 76

Who knows what our future holds.  “We are called to…transformation in a more radical way in our life as Redemptoristines in order to become, both personally and as a community, a living Memorial of the Paschal Mystery of Christ the Redeemer.”  C&S 14  as we seek together the Father’s intent for the whole community.   C&S 65    

Mary, Jesus’ Mother and our Mother, was a wise woman attentive to the Spirit.  In the Cana story we heard how she nudged Jesus to transform his way of thinking and trusted something radical would happen when she told those waiting on table to “Do whatever he tells you.”   In the end the waiter remarked about the ‘choice wine.’  I wonder what ‘choice wine’ awaits us as we strive to remain open to the movements of the Spirit.   What glory will be revealed as we believe in him who “is the light of our faith, the strength of our charity and the source of our hope.”  And be “Like Mary… attentive to the action of the Spirit whose aim is to realize in us the very works of the Redeemer.”  C&S16