Reflection on the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

When I first read the readings for today, I thought I had made a mistake. I double checked and then looked back to find that the first reading today was also the first reading at the Christmas Vigil Mass on Dec. 24. And as I thought about that and wondered why that particular reading appeared twice in less than a month. I thought there must be something significant there. When I reread the reading from Isaiah where he says, “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,” I thought about the fact we are told that the angels and shepherds were not silent when they discovered the wonder of the birth of Jesus. We know our own singing to be joyous and frequent at Christmas time. There are times when songs and words burst from us, and we cannot be silent.

And then I thought about the fact that Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. How grateful we all are that he was not quiet or silenced in his day when he spoke so eloquently of the civil rights granted to all and denied to some because of their race. We still struggle today for vindication and victory in the fight for equal rights for all Americans, regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or economic status. And we know that each of us must not be silent or quiet in the face of inequality, discrimination or violence. We must be the voice of those who cannot make themselves heard, especially children, nature and the marginalized, and those who are afraid to speak. Martin Luther King Jr. told us that “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” We must decide today and each day for whose sake we will not be silent. For whose sake will we not be quiet? What matters to us?

And we know that others, who think very differently from us, are not quiet. We are barraged with claims, demands, as well as conflicting tales of truth and fiction every waking minute if we let it all in.

All of this makes us grateful for the good news of the second reading – the variety of gifts bestowed on people to serve others and create a more divinely inspired global reality. We have in our world today great writers, speakers, teachers, healers and people of great faith. We don’t have to do it all. We only have to do that which we are gifted and called to do. And we need to call on the gifts of others to nourish our own lives and complement our efforts.

In Loretto it is a wonderful thing to read about the works supported by Special Needs and the Hunger Fund and feel a part of it. It is gratifying to hear about the individual works of people within the Community and feel connected to those efforts. It is a blessing to have learned how to listen to people of other cultures and countries, especially those who lack status and stature. I give thanks for the wisdom I gained from people in Haiti, Guatemala and El Salvador.

I need to hear the voices of people in my own country who have experienced systemic racism, sexism, discrimination and violence. It informs my understanding of who we are as a nation and what I can do to end some of the oppression.

And when we come to the Gospel reading, the wedding feast of Cana, we are reminded that our call sometimes come unexpectedly and not as we thought it would. And we need to be ready to respond with our gifts, even when the timing is not ours, when the need is great and the opportunity presents itself.

Jesus originally responded to his mother by saying it was not his problem, and his time had not yet come. But Mary, a woman of deep faith who knew Jesus’ giftedness, trusted and instructed the staff to do as Jesus said. Jesus did not persist in saying this was not the day or the hour for his work to begin. Instead, he went to work, using the gifts God had given him to keep the wine flowing. I imagine it was a big deal in those days to travel to a wedding, and people had expectations of how these things should go. Not much different from today. Jesus went from being a guest to being a leader, from being a bystander to being a problem solver in the service of those he cared about.

We must remain open to those same possibilities. We must be willing to step up and step in when the spirit moves us, and we can contribute to bringing a little more peace, equality and justice to the world.