"Do Whatever He Tells You"

(The following is a homily given on the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, Enid OK, 1/17/16)

Reading 1 Is 62:1-5

Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10

Reading 2 1 Cor 12:4-11

Gospel Jn 2:1-11

“Do whatever he tells you.” 

These are powerful words.  They are words that are simple, yet direct.  They don’t mess around.  They cannot be misinterpreted. 

“Do whatever he tells you.”

So, the logical question becomes: “What is Christ telling us to do?”

From all of our readings today, I think its fair to say that we get the message of trust.  Turst in God’s ability to save us from our forsakenness and desolation (see 1^st reading); trust in the spirit’s ability to endow us with his gifts (see 2^nd Reading); trust in Christ’s ability to change the circumstances in which we find ourselves (see Gospel reading).  “Trust me,” our Lord says to us today, “and you will be unable to stay silent about my love for you!”  “Trust me,” he tells us, “and you will be incapable to remaining quiet about my endless mercy!”

All because you will come to know Him, and love Him, and so want to serve him in the way he has asked us as his army of saints.  He will ask some of us to bring healing, some of us to perform mighty deeds, some of us to prophesy, some of us to proclaim the Gospel in various tongues.  He will ask some to pray, some to mourn, some to overcome adversity, some to be the littlest of flowers in his divine garden.  And tells us all to trust.

What better example could we have than in our Blessed Mother, who today shows us what it means to trust?  With unconditional trust the ability of her Son to change the anxiety of the wedding party into joy, she instructs the servers to follow Jesus’ command.  She could not have known exactly what her son would do, but the faith she placed in her Son gave her the confidence not to have to know, thus showing us the quality of true belief.

Our Lady shows us that our faith in Crist is based on an inherent trust.  We can only be faithful to the things that Jesus asks of us through His Church if we trust in Jesus’ love for us.  This can oftentimes be marred by the very imperfect elements of the Church, but these human scars cannot detract from the divine reality of God’s love for us and his desire that we be truly happy. 

This bring us the notion of the “rules” we follow as believers.  Many think that the morality that the Church expounds is an archaic devise to keep the minions under the thumbs of the hierarchy.  But that cannot be further from the truth.  Christ ordained that he bring the Good News to the world through the frail and weak hands of us.  Through our weakness, we are able to amplify God’s strength – to channel it so as to bring his love to the world.  We channel God’s strength by recognizing our weaknesses for what they are – insufficiency, brokenness, sinfulness.  It is not in our reveling in, justification of, or denial of the truth of these weaknesses that God speaks his love, but rather in our willingness to be vulnerable to the intimate healing power of God for the world to see His strength. 

The code of morality we live by helps us do this.  It does not pretend to make excuses for our struggles, nor does it condemn us for the crosses we bare.  No, it empowers us to carry our cross; it encourages us to think of the hour of fulfillment, in which we will lay our crosses and our crowns at the feet of Jesus.  It is the way in which we echo our Blessed Mother, and we “do whatever” Jesus tells us to do, knowing that, even in the most challenging acts of obedience we might face, we will be given the strength we need to bring glory and praise to our creator.

This is our purpose, my brothers and sisters.  This is our charge by which we take possession of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are reconciled to Him, and so given the privilege of feasting on the banquet of his Body and Blood.  By doing whatever Christ tells us, we are made complete, whole, and united to our passionate lover, our intimate friend, and our merciful God.