Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time [1]
Commentary:
Reading 1 Is 62:1-5
Isaiah prophesies the coming of the Christ with several references and images. Christ is identified as the vindication of Israel. Once the Lord has delivered his salvation the land will be called the Lord’s delight. Finally the image of the bridegroom and the bride are used as a common metaphor for the Messiah and the people of God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Our psalm selection is one of praise and worship. It begins with songs of proclamation then moves to imploring praise and honor and finally and instruction on attire and demeanor.
Reading II 1 Cor 12:4-11
St. Paul associates different gifts within the community to the same Holy Spirit. He thus calls out the beauty of diversity and the need for it within the community of faith. All gifts serve the same purpose; the greater glory of God. All gifts are needed within the body of Christ which is his Church.
Gospel Jn 2:1-11
St. John gives us the story of Jesus first revelatory action following his Baptism by John in the Jordan. He and his disciples are invited to a wedding, the wine runs our, and Jesus’ mother lets her son know that the time has come for his revelation, even though Jesus does not think so.
Ironically the stone water jars were there for the ceremonial cleansing, the very Hebrew custom John the Baptist took and created the call to repentance. The Hebrew custom was symbolic, the Lord would later make it efficacious.
The final statement in this story; “…his disciples began to believe in him” is the only time in John where there was any doubt about the Lord’s true identity on their part.
Homily:
Welcome to the incredible celebration in which we are about to participate! You may ask; “Wait a minute, is today something special? Didn’t we just start Ordinary Time?” The answer to both of those questions is “Yes” even though they seem to contradict each other.
Today is the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time by the Church Calendar. But, as with many words in our faith, the word “Ordinary” has a different meaning than our common English usage. We could talk about the root of the word – from the Latin “ordo” or order, but that would bore the young folks who never had to take Latin and bring back bad memories congregation to those of us who studied the language in earlier days.
The Church uses the word Ordinary in an extraordinary way, if you will excuse the pun. For instance, the “Local Ordinary” or the person who is in charge of the Church of Lansing of which we are a part is an extraordinary person named Bishop Carl Mengling. Another example, the Ordinary Minister of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a Priest. The Ordinary Minister of the Eucharist is a Priest or Deacon. Contrast this with the use of “Extraordinary” in the Church. There are Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist; these are lay persons delegated by the Pastor (the Ordinary Minister) to bring communion to the sick and homebound outside of the assembly and to assist the Ordinary Ministers in the distribution of the Body and Blood of Christ in this assembly. Priests of the Diocese are frequently delegated as Extraordinary Ministers of the Sacrament of Confirmation by the Ordinary Minister of the sacrament which is the Bishop.
Now we can come back to the Calendar and get a better understanding of Ordinary Time. Ordinary time celebrates the mystery of Christ in all His fullness. He is revealed as the Son of God at Epiphany we celebrated last week, during the Lenten season we focus on preparing ourselves for the great Feast of Easter. During “Ordinary Time” we try to understand what God asks of us, through His Son and the Holy Spirit. We marvel at the wonders of God’s love and the Life of Christ among us.
In the beginning we asked two questions. The first as you recall was; “Didn’t we just start ‘Ordinary Time?’” The second was; “Is something special going on today?” The answer to that question is also, emphatically, “Yes”.
Today we celebrate the great wedding feast of the Church. We heard in St. John’s Gospel the story of the Wedding at Cana, one of what has been called the “Wow” miracles of the Lord because it is so spectacular. The Lord, along with his disciples goes to Cana to a wedding. While he is there, the host runs out of wine. It would be very embarrassing for the couple to have this happen so Jesus’ mother brings it to the Lord’s attention.
We see the Lord struggle with this. He tells his mother; “My hour has not yet come.” But she tells the servants; “Do whatever he tells you.” She knows, somehow, that something remarkable is about to take place. The Lord then tells the servants to fill six large stone jars with water and somehow that water becomes wine.
It is almost difficult for us to look past the miracle to see all that this event says to us. We see the image of Jesus stepping out of time.
He at once is the wine; his blood poured out for us.
He is the groom who takes the church as his bride.
He stands with our Priest as once more water and wine become our salvation.
And we have a part too. We stand as the servants who hear Mary say; “Do whatever he tells you.”
We stand as the servants who know where that “Best” wine came from and how it came to be in those stone jars.
We know there were only six and not seven because it was not yet His time.
Is this just an Ordinary sequence of events in the life of Jesus? What a wondrous gift he has given. And all he asks in return is our acceptance of that gift, accepting our role as the children of that marriage of the Lord and His Church.
Amen
Readings for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time [1]
Commentary:
Reading 1 Is 62:1-5
Isaiah prophesies the coming of the Christ with several references and images. Christ is identified as the vindication of Israel. Once the Lord has delivered his salvation the land will be called the Lord’s delight. Finally the image of the bridegroom and the bride are used as a common metaphor for the Messiah and the people of God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Our psalm selection is one of praise and worship. It begins with songs of proclamation then moves to imploring praise and honor and finally and instruction on attire and demeanor.
Reading II 1 Cor 12:4-11
St. Paul associates different gifts within the community to the same Holy Spirit. He thus calls out the beauty of diversity and the need for it within the community of faith. All gifts serve the same purpose; the greater glory of God. All gifts are needed within the body of Christ which is his Church.
Gospel Jn 2:1-11
St. John gives us the story of Jesus first revelatory action following his Baptism by John in the Jordan. He and his disciples are invited to a wedding, the wine runs our, and Jesus’ mother lets her son know that the time has come for his revelation, even though Jesus does not think so.
Ironically the stone water jars were there for the ceremonial cleansing, the very Hebrew custom John the Baptist took and created the call to repentance. The Hebrew custom was symbolic, the Lord would later make it efficacious.
The final statement in this story; “…his disciples began to believe in him” is the only time in John where there was any doubt about the Lord’s true identity on their part.
Homily:
Welcome to the incredible celebration in which we are about to participate! You may ask; “Wait a minute, is today something special? Didn’t we just start Ordinary Time?” The answer to both of those questions is “Yes” even though they seem to contradict each other.
Today is the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time by the Church Calendar. But, as with many words in our faith, the word “Ordinary” has a different meaning than our common English usage. We could talk about the root of the word – from the Latin “ordo” or order, but that would bore the young folks who never had to take Latin and bring back bad memories congregation to those of us who studied the language in earlier days.
The Church uses the word Ordinary in an extraordinary way, if you will excuse the pun. For instance, the “Local Ordinary” or the person who is in charge of the Church of Lansing of which we are a part is an extraordinary person named Bishop Carl Mengling. Another example, the Ordinary Minister of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a Priest. The Ordinary Minister of the Eucharist is a Priest or Deacon. Contrast this with the use of “Extraordinary” in the Church. There are Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist; these are lay persons delegated by the Pastor (the Ordinary Minister) to bring communion to the sick and homebound outside of the assembly and to assist the Ordinary Ministers in the distribution of the Body and Blood of Christ in this assembly. Priests of the Diocese are frequently delegated as Extraordinary Ministers of the Sacrament of Confirmation by the Ordinary Minister of the sacrament which is the Bishop.
Now we can come back to the Calendar and get a better understanding of Ordinary Time. Ordinary time celebrates the mystery of Christ in all His fullness. He is revealed as the Son of God at Epiphany we celebrated last week, during the Lenten season we focus on preparing ourselves for the great Feast of Easter. During “Ordinary Time” we try to understand what God asks of us, through His Son and the Holy Spirit. We marvel at the wonders of God’s love and the Life of Christ among us.
In the beginning we asked two questions. The first as you recall was; “Didn’t we just start ‘Ordinary Time?’” The second was; “Is something special going on today?” The answer to that question is also, emphatically, “Yes”.
Today we celebrate the great wedding feast of the Church. We heard in St. John’s Gospel the story of the Wedding at Cana, one of what has been called the “Wow” miracles of the Lord because it is so spectacular. The Lord, along with his disciples goes to Cana to a wedding. While he is there, the host runs out of wine. It would be very embarrassing for the couple to have this happen so Jesus’ mother brings it to the Lord’s attention.
We see the Lord struggle with this. He tells his mother; “My hour has not yet come.” But she tells the servants; “Do whatever he tells you.” She knows, somehow, that something remarkable is about to take place. The Lord then tells the servants to fill six large stone jars with water and somehow that water becomes wine.
It is almost difficult for us to look past the miracle to see all that this event says to us. We see the image of Jesus stepping out of time.
He at once is the wine; his blood poured out for us.
He is the groom who takes the church as his bride.
He stands with our Priest as once more water and wine become our salvation.
And we have a part too. We stand as the servants who hear Mary say; “Do whatever he tells you.”
We stand as the servants who know where that “Best” wine came from and how it came to be in those stone jars.
We know there were only six and not seven because it was not yet His time.
Is this just an Ordinary sequence of events in the life of Jesus? What a wondrous gift he has given. And all he asks in return is our acceptance of that gift, accepting our role as the children of that marriage of the Lord and His Church.
Amen
[1] ALTRE
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