The Bridegroom beckons.

Reflection on the holy Gospel reading (St. John 2:1-11)- First Sunday of the Great Lent 

“This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.” (v11)

A plain reading of this verse confirms that the public ministry of our Lord embarked when He turned water into wine at the behest of the holy Theotokos at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. It would be an unorthodox way for the Teacher to begin his public ministry- no sermons, no healing, no verbal debates with the religious authorities but a sign in an obscure wedding in Galilee- a sign for those who had the heart and the eyes to behold and understand. 

The wedding was on the third day in Cana of Galilee (v1-2). The third day holds immense importance in the Jewish tradition and Scriptures. One such occurrence was when the Israelites sanctified themselves and waited in anticipation, and on the third day the Lord manifested to Israelites at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19). The events on Mount Sinai were reminiscent of a spiritual wedding. The Ten Commandments were offered to the people, and Israel affirms the covenant. In a symbolic act that affirmed the matrimonial relationship of the Yahweh and His people, Moses took the blood of the sacrifices and sprinkles it on the altar and the people saying- “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.” (Exodus 24:3-8). Post wedding celebrations in many cultures have the practice of the bride and bridegroom having the meal together. Even in Mount Sinai, a heavenly feast followed the spiritual wedding, one wherein Moses and the elders of Israel expressed this familial relationship by dining in the presence of the Lord (Exodus 24:9-11).

The intimate relationship of God and His people akin to a matrimonial union was not a novel concept for Israelites. Prophet Hosea expounds the love of God thus:

“I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy;
I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord." (Hosea 2;19,20)

 And now the Bridegroom (as the Baptist labeled Him (St. John 3:29)) manifested in person, beginning His ministry at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, to fulfil the marriage covenant with the bride-the Church.

The usual course of action would have been to work with the hosts to make alternate arrangements for the provisions of wine for the guests; however the Blessed Virgin simply turns to Christ (who is a guest at the wedding) with the hurdle at hand. The history of Israel is replete with men and women waiting faithfully in anticipation of the Messiah. The Blessed Virgin, who was brought up in the Temple, received the annunciation from angel Gabriel, the one who sung the Magnificat that praises the remembrance of the Lord for His servant Israel wasn’t a passive agency but one who actively pondered the events in heart (St. Luke 2:19).

The Blessed Virgin’s call for help -“they have no wine.” (v.3) is akin to the pleading of Israel to the Lord to receive for the wine of salvation during His glorious manifestation: “The new wine fails, the vine languishes,….There is a cry for wine in the streets” (Isaiah 24:7-13).

The prophecy of Isaiah does not end with the lack of wine. The following chapter foretells how the Lord Himself will not only provide wine in a lavish banquet but He will also ultimately conquer death and the people will rejoice in His salvation. The concept of the great Messianic Banquet has its roots in these prophecies:

“..the Lord of hosts will make for all people ..a feast of wines on the lees, Of fat things full of marrow, Of well-refined wines on the lees…..He will swallow up death forever… And it will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” (Isaiah 25:6-9).

On a surface view the viewer might think that the mother of our Lord is asking her Son to help save the prestige of a relative/family friend. However, seen from a Jewish perspective, this very question shows the prayer of the Blessed Virgin to her Son and the Lord to provide the wine of salvation that was spoken of by Prophet Isaiah.

After tasting the new wine, the master of the feast tells the bridegroom how he kept the good wine until now (v.9, v.10). We gather from these verses that it was the bridegroom’s duty to provide for the wine to the guests. Adeline Fehribach shares- “When the mother of Jesus says to Jesus, ‘They have no wine’ (2:3), she places him in the role of the bridegroom, whose responsibility it is to provide the wine.” [The Women in the Life of the Bridegroom].

There were six waterpots each containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece (v.6). With Jesus’s intervention the amount of wine generated would be roughly equal to 700 liters. Seen from Hebrew eyes, the provision of a colossal amount of wine in a small-town wedding would mean the herald of Jesus the bridegroom- not an ordinary one but the Messianic Bridegroom, the Bridegroom of Israel (ibid). 

In this context, the initial response of Jesus makes sense- “..what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” (v.4). The 'hour', which Jesus alludes to, is the time of His passion and crucifixion. ("Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world ..." (St. John 13:1).

 There will be no turning back once the sign is manifested. It seems that the Lord wants the Blessed Virgin to be really sure of what she is asking. If His hour had not yet come, then her request for help for a Galilean couple on their wedding day (a public event) will set Jesus on the path to Cross. Those with eyes to see would decipher after witnessing the sign that Jesus is indeed the One whom they have been waiting for. They will follow Him, there will be no hidden, regular, private life- in a sense, she will forever lose Him to the followers. The terror of parting with one's own child is unbearable for a mother. In her instruction to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it", she willingly accepts the sword to pierce her own soul.

The presence of Jesus in their lives was so life changing, that the people "tried to keep Him from leaving them" (St. Luke 4:42). When we limit Jesus and His message to ourselves, though this might seem like an act of human love and longing, it is neither expected from Christians nor is it spiritually beneficial. 

As we begin the Lenten journey, may we like the Blessed Virgin, be eager in showing Christ to others though it will involve a 'loss' for us. The wedding residence in Cana had the presence of the Blessed Virgin and Jesus was invited. The homes where the mother of our Lord is present and honored will indeed invite the grace of our Lord through her unceasing intercessions.

May we be strengthened by the prayers of the most holy Theotokos in this journey.

O Great Salvific Lent- come in peace.

In Christ,

Rincy

The vitality of wilderness.

January 07^th-Feast of Glorification of St John the Baptist.

Despite the centripetal pull of darkness there exists a longing, might be even a timid glint, in the inner depths of man to dwell in the light by aligning with truth. A rendezvous with truth and holiness can be a terrifying experience for the sons of this world. That is why a tetrarch with a huge army at his disposal feared a prophet from the wilderness clothed in camel’s hair. “Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man” (St. Mark 6:20). Herod feared the Baptist so much that he imprisoned him, as Flavius Josephus in ‘Antiquities of Jews’ mentions, in a high security fortress called Macherus. 

A flicker of conscience urged Herod to hear the admonitions and teachings of St. John the Baptist.  The Scripture says Herod Antipas after listening to the Baptist, ‘did many things and heard him gladly’ (St. Mark 6:20). What many things could have Herod done following the teachings? Probably the same as what the Baptist told to his hearers- to give a tunic and food to one who has none, to collect taxes that are just, not to intimidate and accuse anyone falsely and to be content with the wages/wealth (St. Luke 3:10-14) We can only assume that Herod Antipas would have taken morally good actions for a brief period. Soon his growing conscientious inner voice was quenched by the chains of intoxication, lust, and gluttony. 

One name that stands out in the list of prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch is that of Manaen (Acts 13:1). The Scripture identifies him as a childhood friend of Herod the tetrarch, one who was the ruler's childhood friend. Very likely that the seeds of repentance were sown in Manaen when he heard the preaching of St. John the Baptist in Herod's court. St. John the Baptist was the 'burning and shining lamp' (St. John 5:35) in the dark world of Judean royalty politics which would have helped Manaen follow the True Light.  Manaen and the tetrach's reception of the teachings shows how the gospel is received in a heart that is stony and thorny  versus a heart that is a good soil. When it seems that the entire kingdom stands against us for our beliefs, may we remember to persevere in faith for the sake of Manaen's of the world for them to embrace Christ.

It then went downward for Herod Antipas following the execution of St. John the Baptist. The more one tries to silence the voice of conscience the more trouble one fosters. Herod was scared when he heard about Jesus because he thought it was the Baptist who had risen from the dead. (St. Matthew 14:1-2). The Pharisees warn Jesus to leave the territory as Herod wants to kill Him (St. Luke 13:31)- probably, Herod wanted to manically eliminate that would remotely remind him of the Baptist. Our Lord perfectly describes Herod as the fox (St. Luke 13:32) – timid before the strong and brutal with those who are vulnerable, the one who alternate easily between God and the devil depending on the situation. If we were to look at ourselves these very qualities of Herod reflect our reality.

The man who once did “many things” after hearing the Baptist later treated the Son of God with contempt and mocked Him (St. Luke 23:11). How apt in the teaching of our Lord - if for a brief period we are able to do good after overcoming the evil spirits, we ought not to lower our spiritual guard for these will attack again with even worse spirits and eventually foster our spiritual decline. “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. (St. Matthew 12:43-45). St. Paul warns that we struggle against the rulers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12) so we should not forget that the journey to the kingdom of God is a constant violent struggle (St. Matthew 11:12). 

St. John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and people went out to him to be baptized in Jordan (St. Matthew 3:1-6). Life can only be found in the desert clustered around water sources. The Forerunner calls us away from a lifestyle focused on deceptive impressions-where power, position, status, glitter masquerades as ‘the’ life. St. Gregory of Nyssa laments this ‘worldly focused bodily motion’- “Like the animals who labor and sweat in a mill with their eyes blindfolded, we go about the mill of life always going through the same motions and always coming back to the same place again. I mean that round of hunger, satiety, going to bed, getting up, emptying ourselves and filling ourselves, one thing constantly follows the other, and we never stop going round in circles until we get out of the mill.” The Baptist calls us to the water in the desert to ultimately point to Christ who years to give us the water that will become in us a “fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (St. John 4:14)

The Baptist is a man of the wilderness. The evangelist states that it was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar that the word of God came to St. John the Baptist in the wilderness (St. Luke 3:1). Tiberius Caesar ruled the Roman empire from AD 14- 37. So, it would have been in around AD 29 that the Baptist got the mission to preach repentance to the people thereby preparing the way of the Lord.

“So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.” (St. Luke 1:80). Though uncertain about the exact age at which did St. John the Baptist head to the desert but if we rely on oral tradition that point to infancy then the Forerunner of our Lord spent more than two decades waiting and praying in the desert.

The peculiarity of the desert lies in the fact that there is no place to hide. Thus, the desert beckons us on a journey to confront our true self by shunning all forms of precincts that society binds us with.  Our lives offer opportunities whereby we are called to journey in the deserts patiently awaiting closures and answers to our prayers. 

Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis writes- “Everyone does go through the desert, in one shape or another. It may be in the form of some suffering, or emptiness, or breakdown, or breakup, or divorce, or any kind of trauma that occurs in our life. Dressing this desert up through our addictions or attachments-to material goods, or money, or food, or drink, or success, or obsessions, or anything else will delay the utter loneliness and the inner fearfulness of the desert experience. If we go through this experience involuntarily, then it can be both overwhelming and crushing. If, however, we accept to undergo this experience voluntarily, then it can prove both constructive and liberating.” [In the Heart of the Desert-The spirituality of the desert fathers and mothers]

When the wait seems long and directionless, may the prayers of the Forerunner of our Lord help us to ‘endure that our souls may gain’ (St. Luke 21:19).

In Christ,

Rincy