Reflection on the Gospel of the Friday Of The Fifth Week In Ordinary Time(Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day Of The Sick) |
John 2:1-11 |
John’s purpose of writing the gospel was clearly to make his audience believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. His goal was not to provide information but to instill faith in the people. The miracles that he speaks about in the Gospel are thus signs pointing to Jesus’ identity.
The setting in today’s passage is of a wedding (OT connotation to Yahweh’s marriage with Israel) and Mary requesting Jesus to address a practical issue faced. A deeper insight into the passage throws light on this miracle being symbolic of replacement of old jewish institutions. The stone jars were empty, waiting to be filled; Jesus fills them with new wine and that too in abundance! The old form is now replaced with new content, a sign of arrival of God’s new age.
Jesus’s wisdom and teaching represents the new wine in the old structured thinking of the jews who were so lost in maintaining the Levitical laws. His first miracle is a sign of him bringing in the good news and ushering in God’s reign and at an appropriate time. The miracle takes place before the Passover and then significantly on the third day as a reference to his resurrection. A difficult situation is replaced with a happy ending!
On the feast of Our lady of Lourdes, let us approach our loving Mother to take our empty jars of worldly anxieties, and goals and fill them with the new and abundant wine of our Lord. To Jesus through Mary!
