Dear friends,
Extraordinary Mission Month 2019
Looking ahead: in October 2019, there is to be an extraordinary mission month, entitled "Baptised and sent". For a rich array of resources in English, click here.
Sunday 02C19
Complete notes (pdf)
Gospel notes (audio)
Gospel notes (portable)
How does one engage with or even preach on the wedding feast of Cana? The story is really John's version of the proclamation of the Good News, with the explicit notes of love and joy brought to the fore. It would be better not to treat it as a literal wonder but rather as a kind of Johannine parable or parabolic tableau. In the setting of John's Gospel, it seems evident that Jesus is the bridegroom ("The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice." John 3:29)
In reality, the writer is looking back on Jesus' original proclamation of the Gospel, but in the clear light of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, a retrospective unveiling of the potential of the Gospel. Seemingly little phrases point us in the right direction: "on the third day", "my hour", "woman", "where it came from", "until now". Given the challenge of precisely joyfulfaith today, perhaps this Gospel is the very one we need to hear.
Some inspiration
The miracle at Cana
By Malcolm Guite
Here's an epiphany to have and to hold,
A truth that you can taste upon the tongue,
No distant shrines and canopies of gold
Or ladders to be clambered rung by rung,
But here and now, amidst your daily living,
Where you can taste and touch and feel and see,
The spring of love, the fount of all forgiving,
Flows when you need it, rich, abundant, free.
Better than waters of some outer weeping
That leave you still with all your hidden sin,
Here's a vintage richer for the keeping
That works its transformation from within.
'What price?' you ask me, as we raise the glass,
'It cost our Saviour everything he has.'
NB last week's poem was also by Malcolm Guite (the attribution given was a mistake).
With very best wishes,
Kieran O'Mahony, OSA
Biblical Resources
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