(Second Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given on Sunday,
January 17, 2016 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond
Suriani. Read John 2; 1-11.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Second Sunday 2016]
Today I will share with you three simple but very important lessons on
prayer—lessons that we learn from this gospel story of the wedding at Cana.
Now the first thing that needs to be mentioned is that this story is
not about prayer per se. In fact, the
word “prayer” is not found anywhere in the text.
But Mary in this scene intercedes
with Jesus on behalf of a newly married couple—and making intercession is one
of the things we do when we pray (specifically when we pray prayers of petition).
Which brings us to lesson number 1 from the story: Mary is a powerful intercessor, so we should ask her every day to pray
for us and with us as we bring to God our needs.
The power of Mary’s prayers is evident in the very fact that Jesus
takes action here and honors her request—a request she obviously made out of
love and concern for these newlyweds. As
some of you probably know, wedding celebrations in the Middle East in the first
century lasted for several days, and wine was considered an indispensable part
of the festivities. Consequently running
out of wine would have been a humiliating situation for this bride and groom to
have to deal with—what the Italians of today would call a “brutta figura”!
And Mary knew that.
Now the interesting thing here is that Jesus does not initially respond
to the request with a yes, indicating that he had not originally planned to
perform this miracle. But even this witnesses
to Mary’s intercessory power! As it said
in one commentary I read recently, “Jesus’ reply seems to indicate that
although in principle it was not part of God’s plan for him to solve the
problem the wedding feast had run into, our Lady’s request moves him to do
precisely that.” (The Navarre Bible: The
Gospel of Saint John, page 61)
So if you haven’t been asking the Blessed Mother to pray for you and
for your intentions, make sure you start—today.
The easiest way to tap into Mary’s intercessory power, of course, is to
say a Rosary—or at least a decade of the Rosary—every day.
We all have time for at least one decade a day. No excuses.
This brings us to the second lesson we learn from this story: Prayers do not need to be complicated to be
effective. Mary’s request here is
very simple, is it not? In fact, the
request is not even explicit, it’s only implied. Mary simply makes the need known to Jesus:
“Son, they have no wine.” Period! The implication, of course, being “So please
do something to rectify the situation.”
A simple statement with an implied request—but highly effective!
The fact that our prayers don’t need to be complicated really came home
to me several years ago when I was listening to a talk by Charlie Osburn. Charlie is a Catholic layman who’s a kind of
travelling evangelist. He goes around
the country proclaiming the Gospel in parishes, and at conferences and the like. He was a mediocre Catholic in his early
years, but as an adult he experienced a deep conversion and really came alive
in his faith. Not surprisingly he was
very excited about his relationship Jesus when he first had his conversion, and
one of the things he felt called to do at the time was to visit the local
nursing home to pray with the residents there—especially for healing. (This was before the HIPAA laws restricted
people’s visiting rights.)
So he would go from room, praying with people and praying over
people—often with long, spontaneous, pious prayers which were sometimes in
English and sometimes in tongues (the gift St. Paul speaks about in today’s
second reading).
He did this a number of times over the course of several weeks, but he
didn’t notice any dramatic changes in anybody.
Now I’m sure his prayers had many positive effects, but Charlie didn’t
see those effects with his own two eyes, so he began to get discouraged.
Yet he still made his visits.
Well, one day when he was feeling very discouraged, he went into a room
and found a relatively young woman there all curled up in the fetal position. Her limbs were contorted, and she was
non-communicative (she was either unable or unwilling to speak).
Charlie then uttered one of the shortest and least-enthusiastic prayers
he ever said in his life. He said, “Well
Lord, if you can do anything to help this dear sister, please do it—in the name
of Jesus. Amen.”
And he walked out.
A couple of months later he was giving a talk at a local parish, and
when the talk was over a rather attractive woman suddenly ran up to him very
excitedly, threw her arms around his neck, gave him a big kiss on the cheek and
said, “Charlie, do you remember me?!!!”
As I recall the story, Charlie’s wife was standing close by, and
Charlie shouted, “No ma’am I do not remember you!” Then he turned to his wife and said,
“Honestly, dear, I’ve never seen this woman before in my life!”
But he had seen her before—he just didn’t recognize her! She was the woman he had prayed over that day
in the nursing home.
Obviously she believed that his prayer had been instrumental in
bringing her the healing she needed.
It was a very simple prayer that Charlie had uttered; it was an uncomplicated
prayer—similar in those respects to the one Mary spoke to Jesus during the
wedding at Cana.
And it was effective—just like Mary’s was.
This brings us to the final lesson on intercessory prayer that we learn
from this story, which is that Almighty
God has made some things in this life conditional. This means that if we don’t ask the Lord for
those things—those conditional favors—we will not receive them. Mary asked
her divine Son to do something to help these newlyweds avoid a potentially
humiliating situation at their wedding feast—and Jesus took action. Had she not
made that request, we have no reason to believe that Jesus would have performed
this particular miracle. Mary’s
intercession was key—as was the obedience of the stewards. Had they not followed Jesus’ instruction to
fill the six stone jars with water, there would have been no wine even with
Mary’s intercession!
I think there’s an insight here as to why the prayers of holy people
are so powerful: they ask—but they also obey God in their own personal
lives. And so, because they add their obedience to their intercession, they end up
receiving many of those favors that God has designated as “conditional”—for
themselves and for others.
Mary is a powerful
intercessor; prayers do not need to be complicated to be effective; and God has
made some things in this life conditional—three lessons on intercessory prayer
that we learn from the wedding at Cana.
Let me end now by inviting you to join me in putting these lessons into
practice. Let’s now lift up all of our needs,
and concerns, and burdens to the Lord, seeking our Blessed Mother’s powerful
intercession as we say together …
Hail Mary, full of
grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed
art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
