“Do Whatever He
Tells You”
(Jn 2:5)
Dear Sisters
and Brothers in Christ,
The Gospel
story of how water turned into wine at the wedding at Cana is sending us a
message with three important points: one, the Blessed Mother is always
attentive to the needs of each and one of us; two, the Mother of Christ
effectively intercedes for us with Her beloved Son; and three, the key to
successful prayer consists in practicing Christ’s teaching.
First of
all, however, allow me to explain to you the implication of what is described
in the story as a “shortage of wine.”
Put in the context of a joyful social celebration such as a wedding
party, wine obviously stands for something essential and necessary for the
completion of the event. “Vinum
laetificet cor hominum”, Latin for “wine brings joy to man’s heart”, would tell
us the truth that we badly need something which justifies and motivates what we
think, say and do. We do need the
“raison d’être”, French for “reason for being”, for our life here on
earth. It may be our ideal, our
conviction, belief or faith, either political or philosophical or
religious. Because of it, we find our
efforts, sacrifices, sufferings and even death, in building a happy family, a
better society and a lovely world worth living, absolutely meaningful. So, if one day we no longer find any joy of
working, of studying, of talking to friends, of sharing with our loved ones
tears and laughter, our life is really running short of wine.
Present at
the wedding no one but the Blessed Mother realized that the wine ran
short. That was truly a very
embarrassing incident that might cause the newly-wed couple certain difficulties
the worst of which would be the failure of their marriage. They hopelessly tried some efforts but to no
avail. The worries and fear caught the bride and bridegroom out and paralyzed
them. Sad to see their problem do not reflect
the concern of other people, not even that of their best friends. Sometimes one suddenly feels lonely amidst
big and noisy and cheerful crowds when one can find nobody to tell what they
treasure in their hearts. There are
countless signs of an increasing indifference or insensitivity in our today’s
society. This is really a shortage of
wine.
Upon
realizing the young couple’s needs, the Blessed Mother approached Her Son and
reported it to Him, totally sure of a solution to the problem. Good will and charity, or love, should lead
to immediate and efficient action. Too many
words, including rhetoric statements and beautiful promises, are nice to hear indeed
but far from being worthy of Christian values at all. Christ our Lord once strongly criticized the “lip
service” way of life among His disciples.
This, too, is a shortage of wine.
The story
has a happy ending when the miracle of water happened. How did the miracle happen? Where could we find the key to obtaining
whatever we pray for? “Do whatever He tells you” was all that
we should do to ensure that water will turn into wine, problem into
opportunity, suffering into joy, darkness into light. In other words, the shortage of wine becomes
abundant sources of much more delicious drink when we keep the Word of God, the
teaching of Church in our daily life and action. In short, we would have plenty of good wine if
we give Christ our Lord and Savior a room in our joy and happiness, concern and
worries, fears and hopes.
Fr. Francis Nguyen, O.P
