Ongkingco
…only God can transform our common life into something marvelous!
When Christians ponder on the reality of death, it is often associated with Gospel narratives about our Lord’s Passion and Death on the Cross.
This is only natural because Jesus also taught that if we want to be his disciples, we must take up our cross and follow him to Calvary.
Recently, however, I was struck by the thought of relating our limited timeline on earth to a special episode in Jesus’ life.
This is Wedding Feast of Cana that is found only in St. John’s Gospel.
It was a crucial point in Jesus’ life because it was his first miracle and it ushered him into the public eye.
There are many lessons in this festive event, but I believe — though it may seem far-fetched — that this feast may also have a lesson about life, death and our resurrection one day.
Feasts are meant to celebrate life! And the wedding feast at Cana was no exception.
In fact, it heralded the arrival of a new stage in man’s salvation: through Christ, God was going to pour out his grace upon mankind.
This would open man to a supernatural life.
The critical moment about the wedding was the host running low on wine for his guests.
This is a great tragedy for any celebration, and especially a wedding.
But this is precisely where we may draw lessons about human life and death.
Everything we have here on earth including man’s life is limited.
One day, the wine of life will run out and the wedding feast will be over.
We become aware that before God’s being and power, we are nothing and powerless.
Man is aware that one day he shall die and all of life’s joys and possessions will cease to be: his talents, knowledge, skills, contacts and what else we attach to our persona, will disappear and be forgotten.
Death marks the end of man’s earthly existence.
It is the equalizer for humanity: no one is exempted from it, whether rich or poor, intelligent or dumb, healthy or sick, etc., we will all die and pass on.
When Jesus was told that the “wine had run out” he said only God can transform our common life into something marvelous!
Only God can transform our common life into something marvelous!
Only God does something unexpected.
He instructed the servants to fill six stone jars, each with a capacity of 20 to 30 gallons, with plain water.
Afterwards, he told them to draw some out and take to the headwaiter.
All this was sufficient for the miracle to take place: water became wine.
Our Lord could have easily created the wine instantaneously from nothing, but he preferred a more natural approach to achieve something extraordinary.
Without pronouncing words or waving gestures over the water, Jesus merely asked the hirelings to let the headwaiter taste the new and excellent wine.
In this captivating imagery Jesus conveys that man’s life isn’t even comparable to wine.
It is in fact, as common as water.
Water naturally holds some value, but only God can transform our common life into something marvelous!
Thus, we must follow this very same order in our life: to present the common water of our daily life to Jesus. Day in day out we must persevere in this ordinary but divine chore.
Until, one day — with the help of grace — having lived our life “to the brim” we will find ourselves in God’s presence.
Finally, let us not forget that it was through Mary’s intercession that Jesus performed this miracle.
Likewise, the fullness of our life presented to God, is the result of having been helped by family, friends, spiritual guides and the saints who await our arrival to our heavenly destination.