God does not need us.

He is omnipotent and can do whatever He likes. In the perfect communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He is complete in himself.

And yet, the entire Bible is the story of a God who longs for us, human beings, and seeks an intimate union, even a marriage, with us. In Sunday’s first reading, Isaiah tells us that God will marry Israel, and rejoice over her.

Today’s Gospel shows us Jesus at the wedding in Cana. Christian tradition connects Cana to the biblical marriage between God and humanity. St Augustine says that it’s fitting that Christ went to a wedding and performed His first miracle there, since He had come into the world to establish a marriage between God and human flesh.

This sort of language is not metaphorical or poetic. It’s real, as real as the flesh of Christ. Because though he does not need us, God comes in search of us, joins Himself fully to human flesh, and becomes one with us. Not just in some metaphorical way, but really, in the flesh of Jesus Christ, which in the incarnation is God’s flesh. This union between God and flesh which begins in Christ, extends out even to us. In Christ and through the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we too become united with God in the Church.

Today’s Gospel draws out what this means concretely.

Jesus did not need Mary to bring the need of the wedding guests to him. John’s Gospels repeatedly underlines how Jesus knew people, and what they were thinking without being told. Yet, He performs His first miracle at Mary’s request and her pleading. And He goes further. He who created the whole universe out of nothing could have produced wine out of nothing and yet, He asks the servants to provide something, the water in the stone jars. From the water they provide, Jesus makes the best wine, not just a few bottles or a few litres, but between 120 and 180 gallons of it; something only God could do.

Jesus wants to show us something by all this. The events in today’s Gospel show us the purpose of the incarnation we celebrate at Christmas. God didn’t come into the world just to pay us a visit. He didn’t come into the world just to show us the love of God as something external, out there. He didn’t come just to teach us or give us an example. He didn’t come just to rescue us from the devil. He does all these things, but He goes much further.

He came into the world to transform us and work in and through us, to show Himself to the world in and through us. The incarnation of God continues in the world in and through us. In all the sacraments, as at Cana, God takes material things, and human words, human actions, human desires and emotions, and He uses them to unite us to Himself.

In baptism, He uses water and our words to make us children of God. In Confession, He takes our repentance for our sins, and through the priest’s words, grants us freedom from sin. In the Eucharist, He takes the gift of bread, wine and water, and through our words and actions, He transforms them into Himself and enters our bodies, and unites us to Himself. In Holy Orders, God takes the sacrifice of a man’s whole life and enables him to repeat His own words “This is my body … my blood.” “I absolve you.” And in marriage, God takes the words of husband and wife, their sexual union, their growing love for each other and for their children, and He enables their marital union to be an image in this world of His own union with His people.

And he goes further yet. He leads us to pray for each other, like Mary at Cana and if that weren’t enough, in the angels and saints, and chiefly the Blessed Virgin Mary herself, he assures us that in heaven there are many who pray for us constantly. He enables us to speak to each other about Him. Through our works of charity towards each other, Jesus Himself reaches out to the people in the world.

Through our obedience to what He tells us, God shows the world his wonderful deeds. Though He does not need us and can do whatever He likes, God chooses to work in the world. In and through you and me.

That is the greatness of the Christian calling.

~ A homily given on the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time 2019
by Fr Robert Krishna OP