II Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) – January 16, 2022

Did Jesus in Cana at Galilee want to fascinate and to “buy” first disciples with His extraordinary talents, to enjoy people with an unexpected delivery of good wine, and by the way to create a good taste to us? Certainly not! Jesus never abused His power to make tricks or to make His life easier. His miracles had always a character of “signs”: they expressed something, and they taught something, and not only make a sensation. It was the first Jesus’ miracle, so it had a program’s character and announced later events.

Mary encouraging servants to obey Jesus indicates that in the work of salvation it is necessary to trust Jesus. Servants could not understand the command, and even could recognize it as a whim of a moody guest and simply ignore the request. And yet they subordinated and brought hundred liters of water from the wells. It probably cost a lot of effort. If they refused, Jesus could not make a miracle, at least not in this way. He wanted to teach us that God needs human cooperation in the work of salvation, that He doesn’t do it without our participation. And what is most important belongs to God, but the effort of man within the limits of human opportunities and competences is necessary.

Above all, it is about the effort of faith. The faith is born in the long process of recognizing God, experiencing His action and power, in the spiritual closeness between God and man. The mature faith must be a personal relationship between man and God, not just a formality or performing certain gestures and duties. Only trust and obedience to God is a breakthrough from which we can say that someone really believed, that is he/she entered the path of the mature faith. And trust and obedience works in life: through actions, decisions, attitude, way of thinking and proceedings. And only then God will be able to change us internally – like a water into wine.