Reflection/Homily: Second (2nd) Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Year C (January 20 2013)

Theme: The Wedding Feast and the Sharing of Gifts

In a typical African society, once a male child becomes an adult, the next stop is for him to marry. In some societies, manhood is marked with some cultural activities like “Iwa Akwa” or with the attainment of a certain age or even with a landmark achievement like graduation or securing a job. In an African way, we can say that last Sunday, with his baptism Jesus was initiated into manhood and the next thing awaiting him is to get married. The first reading (Isaiah 62:1-5) seems to confirm this when the prophet talks about the marital relationship between Yahweh (the Bride) and the people of Israel (the bridegroom).

Again in the gospel reading (John 2:11), we are presented with the scene of a wedding feast. This wedding feast becomes a symbol of the marriage between God and man as Isaiah foretold in the first reading. Jesus who was invited as a guest in this wedding becomes the real bridegroom and the people gathered there the real bride. For this reason, the identities of the couple were not mentioned and the narrative gradually lost its attention from the couple to Jesus and the guests including His mother.

In most cultures, a marriage feast is characterized with the sharing of gifts. The couple shares their love together and other physical gifts like food, wine, souvenirs, etc are shared with the invited guests. In the gospel, the wedding feast of the couple ended when the wine they were sharing finished and Mary informed Jesus that “they have no wine”. She was probably referring to the servers who had no wine to share and Jesus changed water into wine because it is the responsibility of the bridegroom to provide the wine.

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