Homily for the Second Sunday
After Epiphany
She said to Him, "They have no wine." She said to the servants, "Whatever he tells you, do.". In Mary here you have the perfect example of intercession, of praying for others. She sees her neighbor's need and doesn't pass by it without a thought. She lifts up that need, takes it into her own heart, and carries it to the feet of her Son, where she confidently lays it down. She has no doubt whatsoever, as her words show, that her Son cares and will do what is
best. She trusts Him and shows her trust by leaving the matter entirely in His hands. She waits in eager expectation for the answer to her prayer and she is not disappointed when it comes. The answer to her prayer, in addition to proving a blessing for her neighbors in
their need, results in Jesus being glorified and his disciples' faith being strengthened.
Mary here is first an example of love. If you were the first to happen upon a car accident and there were injuries involved, the loving thing to do would be to procure help. To use your cell phone and call 911. To get out and render whatever first aid you know how
until the ambulance arrived. And if you don't know anything about first aid at all, then just to be with the injured party and assure them that help was on the way. That would be the loving thing to do. If you saw such an accident and then looked away as if you hadn't. If you kept on driving down the road so as not to get involved, who would disagree that would be an unloving action?
Now, God has told you that chief and first among the many ways you can help others is this: that you can bring them, with their need, their sorrows, their sufferings to God Himself in prayer. You can pray for them and lay them down at the feet of Jesus. What is it but a lack of love, my friends, when you know that someone is in need, is hurting, is aching, and you don't lift them up in prayer to Jesus? What is that but lovelessness on your part? Mary here sets the example for you. She takes her neighbor's need into her own heart. She doesn't do what too many would do, that is to sit back and click the tongue and say to others: "He sure didn't plan this wedding very well, did he?" "No, he sure didn't. I always say it's better to plan on having too much rather than running out." "Tut, tut, tut." Mary feels for her neighbors in their extreme embarrassment and instead of gossiping to others about it, she turns to her Son and tells Him the problem. And there is no problem of your neighbors (and likewise of your own) that is too little, too insignificant to turn over to God in prayer. Look, he who numbers the very hairs of your head, do you think that there is anything
about you that would be of no concern to Him? No way.
Next you must notice how Mary prays. What she says and what she doesn't say. Too often in praying we like to tell God just what to do. We see a way to solve our neighbor's dilemma and in our infinite arrogance we turn to the all-wise God and lay out for Him a plan of
action that He can now take. Mary does nothing of the kind. When she intercedes for her neighbor, she does nothing more than this: to take her neighbor's problem, and lay it before Jesus. As you learned long ago in your Catechism, in your praying it does not do for you to
prescribe to God "time, manner, or means". All of that you can leave safely in His hands. As the hymn says: "He knoweth best, who knoweth all."
And do not for one second imagine that Mary despaired when her Son more or less asked her: "What has this concern to do with us? My hour is not yet come." She knew perfectly well that this concern had everything to do with him, because there is no one who has ever or who will ever turn to her Son and seek his help in vain. She as much as says: "Don't try that one out on me, Jesus of Nazareth. I know you. I know that love and pity and mercy fill your heart. I know that that is why you came into this world and were born of me, to
help us in our greatest need."
Ah, you see it, don't you? "My hour has not yet come." What "hour"? The hour when He would answer your greatest need of all; the hour when He answered your need of redemption, of forgiveness, of atonement. The hour when He hung on the cross and shed His blood, winning eternal salvation, answering for your sin, obtaining forgiveness for the world, and opening up the kingdom of heaven to all believers. It is precisely because of that hour, which had not then come, but which most surely was coming, that Mary so confidently interceded with her Son. Paul had the hang of it years later, when he wrote in Romans: "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him freely give us all things?" If Jesus gives the gift of Himself so fully, what on earth do you think He would deny you?
So you can trust Jesus when you lay the concerns of your neighbors and loved ones before Him. You can trust Him because you lay them at the feet of Him who loved you so much as to carry our sins, to die for you, and then to rise again in victory for you. There is no one
in the whole human race, who is not loved and blood-bought by Him. So to the One who answered the deepest need you ever had: the need for a righteousness that would enable you to stand sinless and holy before the Judgment Seat of God; to the One who robed you in that righteousness; to that One you can confidently turn in every time of need, and lay down at His feet you every burden in confidence.
And you will not be disappointed when He answers your prayers. Oh, He most likely won't answer them in the way that you imagined. His answers are always better.
I don't think for a moment that Mary quite expected such an answer as she got. For Jesus to take those six water jars and manifest His glory by changing 120 gallons of water into 120 gallons of the best, the finest wine, was certainly an answer to prayer far beyond her own
imaginings! With Jesus, it is as the old collect says: "O Almighty God, always more ready to hear than we to pray, and always ready to give more than we either desire or deserve." That's just how our God is.
His answer to prayer may be delayed, it may take some time, but just you watch and see. When it comes it will be always more. More than you desired, and most certainly more than you deserve. The same Jesus who received Mary's prayer, is standing today with His arms
wide open waiting to receive yours. Don't pass by your neighbor in his hour of need. Learn from Mary to love and so lift up the concerns of those around you and carry them in your heart to Jesus and lay them before the throne of grace, to receive His help in time of need, to whose Kingdom may we all attain by His grace and love for mankind, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all glory and honor, now and forever.
Amen.
