Deacon Tom's Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Abundanza! Remember mama Celeste telling us how great her pizza was?  I don’t know whether it was the size of the pizza, the flavor of her sauce, or the amount of cheese that made her pizza “Abundanza.”

But, Mama Celeste taught us all the Italian word for abundance.

In today’s gospel, we see an abundance of water in six huge stone jars set aside for the Jewish Purification Rites: one hundred eighty gallons of water to wash the hands of the wedding guests and make them worthy of sharing in the wedding banquet.

What a blessing this abundance of water is, especially in this arid desert land. But, up to this point, even all this water cannot truly purify the wedding guests.  There’s nothing on earth that can truly cleanse them up to this point.  But, all this is about to change!

Many of Israel's ancient Prophets predicted that, at the Messiah’s coming, all the vines would yield an abundance of wine.  The Prophet Amos says: “The juice of the grapes shall drip down the mountains, and all the hills shall run with it.”  From the time the Jewish children were very young, they were taught to be on the lookout for this abundance of wine that would signal the arrival of the Messiah.

So, at Cana, when Jesus transforms 180 gallons of water into an abundance of the finest wine, Jesus is saying to all the wedding guests present and the whole Jewish nation, “Here I am. I, the Long-awaited Messiah, have arrived.”  We have here yet another epiphany, another manifestation of God’s saving presence breaking through into our world.

All the water on earth cannot purify us.  Only the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out for us, can cleanse us.  Only the Precious Blood of Jesus poured out for us can make us truly worthy to share in the heavenly wedding banquet.

At the last supper, Jesus changes wine into His Blood, and then He generously sheds every drop of His Precious Blood for us during His Passion and His Crucifixion – showing us the abundance of God’s love for us.

Today, right now, God’s abundant Love is pouring down upon each one of us like a mighty waterfall.

St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians: that God can accomplish abundantly more than all we can ask.  He can do exceedingly more than we can even imagine!

Today, we ask: “Give me even more of your Divine Life, O Lord.  Give me even more of Your Holy Spirit!”  Jesus promises us that our reward for following His teachings will be “a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing.” 

Abundanza!