September 13th Fast

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JMJ

"On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.  When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."  And Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."  Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim.  He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast." So they took it. 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 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."  This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him. " (Jn. 2:1-12)

Married couples should take great solace in that Christ performed His first miracle at a celebration of the marital covenant.  As God the Father ordained the union of man and woman at the beginning of time, so God the Son sanctified their union at the new beginning in the re-established order of grace.

The exhaustion of the wine supply should be a familiar quandary to those in the marital or religious vocation.  There are periods in life when one is literally spent: his energy lost, his zeal wavering, his perseverance nowhere to be found, and his courage empty.  But, he must take heart!  It is in those moments of discouragement and fatigue that we must turn to our Mother and she, seeing our needs, turns to her Son and says," they have no more wine."  When we come to Him in humility, and say, "Lord, I have nothing left" then God looks down upon us with His tender heart, and mercifully grants us the graces we need to go forward.  Our thirsting souls and weary hearts hear the precious words that will guide and comfort us, "Do whatever He tells you."  And when we do thus, Christ fills us anew with His bountiful gifts.

This childlike trust in Him, to fill our jars when they are found wanting takes great faith and dependence on God.  In his recent encyclical, Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis said:

"Faith is no refuge for the fainthearted, but something which enhances our lives. It makes us aware of a magnificent calling, the vocation of love. It assures us that this love is trustworthy and worth embracing, for it is based on God’s faithfulness which is stronger than our every weakness." (No. 53)

 In humbly recognizing our weaknesses and inadequacies we acknowledge Christ's strength to overcome them.  St. Ignatius Loyola wrote a beautiful and simple prayer to reflect this:

"Lord Jesus Christ, take all my freedom, my memory, my understanding, and my will.  All that I have and cherish you have given me.  I surrender it all to be guided by your will.  Your grace and your love are wealth enough for me.  Give me these, Lord Jesus, and I ask for nothing more.

We must turn to Him, asking Him to pattern our hearts after His selfless, generous, patient, and merciful Sacred Heart.  In this way, our love for one another will grow and our a vocation will bear fruit even in the midst of trial and exhaustion.  When a couple's love is founded in His, formed by His, strengthened by His, and directed at ultimately attaining His, then it will fulfill and sustain them.