2nd Sunday of the Year (C)

Author's note: In the Philippines today, Sunday, January 19, 2025, the country celebrates the Feast of the Child Jesus. The Feast is commemorated with much festivity in different parts of the country, and the liturgical readings are different from the readings for the 2nd Sunday of the Year (C) in the Universal Church.

(Edited) Sunday Reflections (from) Liturgical Years 2011 (A), 2012 (B), and 2013 (C)

2nd Sunday of the Year (C), January 20, 2013
Liturgical readings
Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 96
1 Corinthians 12:4-11
John 2:1-12

"Jesus performed this first of His signs at Cana."

The gospel story in John reveals well the humanity and divinity of Jesus. In the first of His signs at Cana, Christ's divinity shone bright among those who knew of it. No one knew of this sign save for Mary His mother, His disciples, and those waiting on table during the wedding feast. Even the waiter in charge of the wedding feast did not know it was the Lord who had changed the water into wine. But the waiter in charge noticed a remarkable change in the quality of the wine that was served. He said to the groom: "People usually serve the choice wine first...what you have done is keep the choice wine until now."

Wine gives joy to any occasion. It is served not only on wedding feasts like the wedding at Cana, but in our own time for important celebrations like corporate anniversaries and sports victories. But there is a celebration where wine has a very important and deeper meaning: the Eucharist. In that celebration, wine (along with the bread), are offered by the people to God in the person of the priest-presider or any other higher official of the clergy. It is this bread and wine offered that becomes the Body and Blood of our Redeemer during the consecration. If one considers the wine at Cana and the wine consecrated in the Eucharist, one can clearly see that both are miracles; both are life-giving actions performed by the Lord. The choice wine at Cana is of very good quality; and the bread and wine in the Eucharist is the highest good Catholics can receive in their life of faith.

The Lord has given all the faithful a memorial of His life in the Eucharist. Upon His Ascension, He promised that He will always be with His followers until the end of time. In John 16:22, He says: "you are sad for a time, but I shall see you again; then your hearts will rejoice with a joy no one can take from you." It is only with the gift of faith in the Eucharist that one can see this promise revealing itself daily in each of the lives of the faithful. The more one lives in the Spirit of Jesus in Word, Sacrament, and action, the more one cherishes this Truth of hope and joy. It is a hope and joy that heals any soul from the darkness of meaninglessness that all find in death in the world. Jesus is the Truth that is like the wine in Cana and the Eucharist: "what [God] has done is keep the choice wine until now".