2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Fr. Jess Ty  |  01/19/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

Dear Family of God,

Why is the Marital Relationship important in our Lives here on earth and in the next?

God in Jesus is our true husband. He is the Bridegroom that is eternally faithful to His Bride, the Church, that is, all of us. Even when we are unfaithful, turning away from Him, committing adultery by worshiping other gods, He remains faithful to us. He does not abandon us.

He is the fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied calling us “My Delight.” He has chosen us with the tender love of a bridegroom. “As a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you.”

Marital relationship points us to the ultimate purpose of our lives and of all relationships, that is, our union with God in the Holy Trinity, our participation in the Divine Life of God Himself.

In the Gospel of John 2:1-11, we ponder on a literal level the newlyweds at Cana, friends of Jesus and Mary in the first century. Mary showed her utmost concern for them not to be embarrassed for running out of wine. But on the symbolic level, the bride and the groom at Cana are also living signs, representatives of the “Royal Wedding” between God and Man brought about by Incarnation of the Word. Mary’s intervention becomes an occasion not only for Jesus to help “one new family,” but even more for Him to begin to “Reveal His Glory” to the new family of believers.

The wedding we celebrate in this Gospel is not someone else’s, but our own—the greatest, the most intimate marriage of all, our marriage with God. In order to preserve the “Choice wine” that is, the Holy Spirit poured out into our hearts, we all need to heed the advice of Mary the Mother of Jesus: “Do whatever He tells you.”