what have you run out of?

The wedding feast of Cana John 2, 1-11 What have we run out of? In the Gospel we have story of the wedding feast of Cana. There is a party, a celebration of life but some thing is missing. The very first miracle of Jesus. Not curing someone who is sick. Not feeding the hungry, not giving sight to the blind or raising the dead to new life. But wine! When you think about it, how necessary is wine? Some people might even say wine is a bad thing. Everyone had drunk too much already, that’s why they ran out. Let them just drink the water, you don’t want them riding home drunk on their camels. Maybe even Jesus thought the same thing. “What’s the big deal mother/woman?” Leave me alone, but still the miracle is performed. The joy is brought back to the wedding feast the wedding feast is saved and the everyone can go back to their partying. This story tells us so much about Jesus and our relationship with him. First of all I think that it is easy for us to identify with Jesus in the story. How many of us have gone to a wedding party and enjoyed the celebration with our friends and family. I also don’t know about you but my mother was a lot like Mary in the story. First of all my mother was aware of what was going on. And she could be a little be nosy. “Let it go mom. It isn’t your party anyway. But still Mary insists and Jesus seemingly doesn’t want to do anything but because of Mary’s insistence he performs his first miracle. This story teaches us so much about prayer. Is there anything that isn’t important to ask for? At times we think, “I am not going to pray for this. It isn’t important enough, or I am just being selfish.” I say pray for everything and anything. Pray that the traffic will be light on the 605. Pray for a parking place, a short homily, that your team will make it to the play offs. Of course we shouldn’t expect that we are going to get whatever it is that we ask for. But when you turn to God in prayer you’re a building a relationship with God. Maybe you won’t get what you are asking for. Maybe you aren’t asking for the right thing. But when we turn to God in prayer, we are admitting our dependence upon God. We are saying, “you know what God? I need you.” It is an admission that things are outside of our control. Turning to God in prayer is an act of faith it is a desire to be connected to God. We might not get what we want, but when we open ourselves in prayer we will always get the presence of God in our life. The other important thing we learn from this very human story is the power of intercessory prayer, most especially turning to Mary. Mary is aware of the need. She turns to Jesus. Mary works no miracle. She doesn’t tell Jesus what to do, she simply makes Jesus aware of our needs. What a blessing to be a Catholic Christian and to know that we have this powerful intercessor. We have our mother who is close to Jesus interceding on our behalf. There might be Christians who don’t want or need Mary. But I am one Christians who needs and wants Mary on my side. The servants are also very curious to me. It says that no one knew about the miracle but the servants knew. They did two things, they participated in the miracle of Jesus and they knew about the miracle. In this current pandemic that we are dealing with who are the servants? They are the scientists who created the vaccine. They are the doctors and nurses who are caring for the patients. They are the people who work in the grocery stores, the truckers and the transportation workers. Jesus works miracles in the world each and every day, and many times he uses his servants, he uses us to work the miracles. The wedding guests may not have been aware of the miracle, but we need to be aware. Our call is to be men and women who are aware of the great things that God is doing in our midst this very day. What have you run out? what is missing from your life? let us turn to Mary and ask her to intercede on our behalf. Let us ask her to have Jesus answer our prayers.