Northing Ordinary About This Sunday (2.C)

Today is the third day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  This is observed around the world every year between January 18 and January 25 ending with the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. This important ecumenical initiative was proposed in 1908 by the co-founder of the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, who were once very active in our Archdiocese and who have promoted this and other aspects of the ecumenical movement ever since.

For most of us in the English-speaking world, ecumenism—a word which comes from the Greek meaning ‘the whole world’—focuses on our separation from Protestants.  The most visible expression of disunity for most Canadians was the Anglican Church whose separation from Rome is a well-known story and who continue to follow many Catholic forms in their worship.

However, there’s another ecumenical concern that might be said to be more important even than unity with Protestants, and that is reunion with the Orthodox Church.  The estrangement between the two great churches of Rome and Constantinople is a wound that is 500 years older than Protestantism, and may be said to be even more scandalous.

Unlike the Protestant churches, the Orthodox have preserved all of the ancient liturgical and spiritual tradition, and there is a recent history of intense dialogue between the Pope and Patriarchs.  In very memorable words St. John Paul declared that “The Church must breathe with her two lungs.”  By this the Pope was suggesting that the Eastern Churches have a great contribution to make to the whole Church.  Long before the split that occurred in the year 1054 there were legitimate differences in emphasis and spirituality between East and West that offer unique riches that need to be shared.

Which brings me to a very interesting coincidence—certainly an intentional coincidence but one that’s so significant that we need to pay some attention to it.  I’m referring to the fact that we read—on this so-called ‘ordinary’ Sunday, the second of the year—St. John’s account of the wedding feast of Cana.

I know you’re scratching your heads.  What is interesting or even coincidental about that?  What does it have to do with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity?  What does it have to do with the Orthodox Church?

Well, let me tell you.  One of the distinctive liturgical traditions of the Eastern Church, dating back as far as the fourth century, was the combination of three events into the one celebration of Epiphany.  Only scraps of this fascinating connection remain in the Roman, or Western, Church to which we belong.

Here’s the story, from a blog post by the American liturgical scholar Philip H. Pfatteicher:

The festival of Epiphany originated in the Eastern Church, where it retains its importance, and then spread to the West. In its origin, Epiphany was a celebration of beginnings: the baptism of Jesus, which was his authorization for his public ministry, and his first miracle at Cana in Galilee, when he ‘showed forth his glory,’ as St. John says. As the festival developed, it became a celebration of these two events, together with the visit of the mysterious Magi.

This Eastern tradition still influences the liturgy of the Roman Church. You noticed, of course, that last Sunday’s celebration of the Baptism of the Lord directly followed the Epiphany, although they were years apart.

And the Liturgy of the Hours for the Epiphany makes explicit reference to the ancient connections.  Listen to the antiphon for the canticle at Morning Prayer:

Today the Bridegroom claims his bride, the Church, since Christ has washed away her sins in the waters of the Jordan; the Magi hasten to the royal wedding; and the wedding guests rejoice, for Christ has changed water into wine.

The same connections appear in the antiphon for the Gospel canticle at Evening Prayer:

Three mysteries mark this holy day. Today the star leads the Magi to the infant Christ, today water is changed into wine for the wedding feast, today Christ wills to be baptized by John in the river Jordan to bring us salvation.

And so, summarizes Professor Pfatteicher:

The feast proclaims the manifestation of Christ to the world: to its waters which he cleansed when he was baptized in the Jordan, to his people who are invited to the marriage of heaven and earth, and to the representatives of the nations in the form of the three kings who come to adore and pay homage to their sovereign.

“So much” he writes, “to ponder and celebrate and enjoy”—a gift to us from Eastern Christianity.

Now we see what a delightful thing it is to hear the Gospel story of the wedding feast of Cana today, in sequence with the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord.  Since our liturgical tradition is different from that of the Orthodox, this happens only every three years—so, in a sense, this second Sunday of ordinary time isn’t ordinary at all. We’re blessed to get a rare glimpse of the riches of the Eastern tradition that are one of the reasons we desire unity with the Orthodox.

Of course the number one reason is simply that Jesus has told us he wants his followers to be one.  St. John Paul’s encyclical letter on ecumenism, Ut unum sint, takes its title from the words of Jesus elsewhere in John’s Gospel where he prays “that they may all be one” (John 17:21).  As St. John Paul states boldly “the unity of all divided humanity is the will of God” (n. 6).  Commenting on these words, Archbishop Miller points out that “the unity of Christians is a sacramental sign which manifests and brings this about” (p. 898, The Encyclicals of John Paul, J. Michael Miller, ed.).

We could say much more about Christian unity and about why Eastern Christians connect three moments in one feast and about the riches of Orthodox spirituality and theology.  But today we need to focus on Cana. At Bethlehem Jesus was revealed as Saviour of all people, at the Jordan he was revealed as the Father’s beloved Son, our Saviour. Cana seems more modest—he is revealed as someone who can change water into wine.  But of course it’s about much more than that.  Jesus is revealed as the one who can transform not only water but human lives.

The writer of my favourite contemporary books of homilies, Msgr. Stanley Krempa from Virginia, points out that the other two readings today help us reflect on the transforming power of Jesus in our own lives. 

In the first reading, Isaiah speaks to God’s people, exiled from their homeland. He tells them that God is so powerful he will change the name of his people from Forsaken to My Delight is In Her. He will vindicate and save and transform his children into a crown of beauty, a people beloved by God.

If you have ever tried to change someone, whether your spouse or a child or even a friend, you will know that changing people is even harder than changing water into wine! 

Msgr. Krempa writes that “So often, we think that if our life has been a failure in some way in the past, it has to be so in the future as though we were riding on iron tracks preventing any change.”  But our future does not need to be the way things were in the past because the Lord has the power to help us move from failure to a fresh start, from the death of sin to a new birth, and from personal loss to a new chapter in our life. 

Jesus can for us what he did for Israel, helping us move from being ‘forsaken’ to being chosen.  Stories of great personal change are not found only in the lives of the Saints or in testimonies on YouTube videos.  It can happen in our lives too.

Jesus can not only change water into wine, our past into a different future, but also our talents into gifts to the Church—instruments of grace and avenues of love, Msgr. Krempa says.  This is the message of St. Paul to the Corinthians in our second reading.  Certainly everyone has their talents and gifts, but the source of this is the Holy Spirit who activates these gifts, who grants them individually to each of us.

We’re talking a great deal right now about leadership in the parish, promoting the call to ministry, and it can frighten some people. But only if we don’t recognize that the One who changed water into wine can turn our talents into gifts for him and our brothers and sisters. 

Msgr. Krempa ends his homily with words I can really make my own: “Jesus still changes water into wine among us every day.”