January 16, 2010

2nd Sunday In Ordinary Time – Year C


Isaiah 62: 1 – 5

1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.
2 The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the LORD will give.
3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My delight is in her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.
5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Psalms 96: 1 – 3, 7 – 10

1 O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!
7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!
9 Worship the LORD in holy array; tremble before him, all the earth!
10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yea, the world is established, it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

1 Corinthians 12: 4 – 11

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;
6 and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.
7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
11 All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

John 2: 1 – 11

1 On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;
2 Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.
3 When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
4 And Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast.” So they took it.
9 When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom
10 and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”
11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

At first glance the words today from Isaiah seem a little strange. He is using the familiar imagery of marriage to describe the way that God will restore Israel and even talks of God calling their land “married” or as the New American Bible puts it, “For the Lord delights in you and makes your land his spouse.”

To the mind of the people of Israel, this was not quite so odd. They believed that their misfortunes were a result of previous generations having walked away from their covenant with God. But it was God who was able to reverse their fortunes. He was the one able to cause the land to be fruitful, to cause the seeds to grow for pasture, for vineyards and so forth. Theirs was a society tied very close to the land, in the time of Isaiah and even in the time of Jesus, and their prosperity was directly tied to how fruitful the land was at any given time. They needed grain for bread at the very minimum, even if they did not have much in the way of livestock.

We have mentioned Covenant and for a moment we should look at what a covenant is. First, what it is not. It is not a contract. Here’s the difference. In a contract one person makes a promise to provide a good or service to another in exchange for the other person’s promise to give back some good or service. In other words the contract is exchange of goods or services. A covenant on the other hand is an exchange of persons. That is to say one person gives himself to the other in exchange for that other giving himself in return. That is exactly what God did first for Abraham and several times later with Abraham’s descendants. God always gave himself to them. “I will be your God and you will be my people.” That is not a contract.

The New Covenant that we speak of, is God’s final and complete covenant with mankind, binding all those who will receive it. That covenant was accomplished by the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Again, he gave himself totally to us, and our response, in order to be part of the covenant is to give ourselves to him.

In Latin, the word “covenant” translates as “sacramentum” or sacrament in English. Every sacrament of the Church is therefore a giving of ourselves over to God. The only one that is different is the sacrament of marriage and that is why the man and woman actually perform the sacrament themselves with the priest as representing God as witness. The man and the woman make a covenant, in the truest sense of the word, giving themselves totally, finally and completely to each other. We have all heard the expression, “as God is my witness?” In this case it is true. If there are no impediments to the marriage, then it is a valid covenant and one which cannot be broken.

A covenant does not have an expiry date. That is why the Church teaches unequivocally today as she has always taught, that marriage is for life. No divorce in the eyes of the Church is possible. The only judgment the Church might make is whether or not the marriage actually occured, whether there was ever a true covenant to begin with. If there were serious impediments to the sacrament, then the Church can decide that a marriage never took place and issue a statement of nullity, or as we call it, an annulment.

Here’s what the Catechism says;

1614 In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning permission given by Moses to divorce one’s wife was a concession to the hardness of hearts.106 The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it “what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”107
1615 This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy – heavier than the Law of Moses.108 By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to “receive” the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ.109 This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ’s cross, the source of all Christian life.
Matthew 19:8
Matthew 19:6
Mark 8:34; Matthew 11:29-30
Matthew 19:11

The Catechism elaborates a little more on this in 1639 and 1640;

1639 The consent by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another is sealed by God himself.141 From their covenant arises “an institution, confirmed by the divine law, . . . even in the eyes of society.”142 The covenant between the spouses is integrated into God’s covenant with man: “Authentic married love is caught up into divine love.”143
1640 Thus the marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never be dissolved. This bond, which results from the free human act of the spouses and their consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable, and gives rise to a covenant guaranteed by God’s fidelity. The Church does not have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.144
Mark 10:9
Gaudium et Spes 48 #1
Gaudium et Spes 48 #2
Canon Law canon 1141

But the Church goes even further. Not only is marriage for life, but it must be open to life;

1652 “By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory.”160
Children are the supreme gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves. God himself said: “It is not good that man should be alone,” and “from the beginning [he] made them male and female”; wishing to associate them in a special way in his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: “Be fruitful and multiply.” Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results from it, without diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day.161
1653 The fruitfulness of conjugal love extends to the fruits of the moral, spiritual, and supernatural life that parents hand on to their children by education. Parents are the principal and first educators of their children.162 In this sense the fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at the service of life.163

Gaudium et spes 48 #1; 50
Gaudium et spes 50 #1 Genesis 2:18; Matthew 19:4; Genesis 1:28
Gravissimum Educationis 3
Familiaris Consortio 28

There have been some who would tell us that with Vatican II it is no longer a problem to use contraceptives. That is plain hogwash. If we look at the documents of Vatican II, in particular Gaudium et spes from 48-50 we will find what was later confirmed by Humanae Vitae. Yes, there was a great rebellion in the Church in 1968 when Humanae Vitae was issued by Pope Paul VI. But despite that rebellion, the Church has not changed her teaching on contraception and will not. It is still sinful and as a mortal sin still requires confession in true contrition with a firm purpose of amendment. That is to say, we don’t intend to do it again.

At this point, if we look back on the first reading from Isaiah, we can understand a little better what he is talking about when he speaks of God “espousing” the land. In the context of a marriage open to life, this passage from Isaiah becomes symbolic, and follows the same pattern that God has always presented to us. In the covenant of marriage God presumes our openness to life. The assumption in this passage is that God will cause the land to bring forth fruit. That is a parallel to marriage, which also brings forth life.

It is interesting also that the Catechism mentions our reading today from the Gospel. The wedding at Cana.

1613 On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign – at his mother’s request – during a wedding feast.105 The Church attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence.

The God that Isaiah speaks of and Jesus the Christ are the same God and we say that we are followers of Jesus Christ. The covenant bond and fertility go hand in hand down through God’s revelation to us and that is why the Church takes it seriously and so should we. Oh yes, in this world of technological advancements we can mess around with fertility and reproduction in any number of ways but when we thwart what God has ordered we stand against God.

St. Paul shows us how this same pattern carries over into our spiritual life. It is the same God that creates the fruits of the Spirit, and various gifts that should mark us for his service in the Church. This is a result of our marriage to the Lamb of God. Revelation speaks of the marriage supper of the Lamb and when we receive Holy Communion we are participating in that in advance of the final feat. It is a foretaste of the great wedding feast. As a Church we are the bride of Christ and so too we must be the fertile ground to bring for the fruits of that union.

Increasing in Him,
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