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From Archbishop Donoghue
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Third Annual Marian Conference |
Dear Friends in Christ, When we hear the story of the Wedding Feast at Cana, we are listening to one of the most profound and many-layered lessons that God has ever given to the human race. On its surface, it is the story of Christ's first miracle - the miracle which confirmed the faith of those who were already following Him, for though their faith perhaps was already in place - and certainly this was the case with our Lady - still, God gave a sign which showed that Christ was indeed the Lord - not just the teacher, not just the Rabbi, but the Lord - over nature, over creation, and that His will was not limited as is ours, by what is possible. For with Christ, all things are possible, and this story, is the beginning of the unfolding of all possibilities - for our individual souls, for our Church where are souls are united with one another and with Him, and for the world in which we live. To choose a wedding feast was most appropriate - it is a time of joy - joy for the two lives that are becoming one - joy for the life which promises to flow from their union - joy for the comfort that weddings, children and families gives all of us, as we see our society - our human society as well as our personal relationships, confirmed, bolstered, and given new life for the future. All these promises are subtly but truly expressed in this story of the wedding Feast at Cana, and these truths, residing on the surface, are but the beginning of the journey - not only Christ's journey through the short years of His public ministry - not only the journey of His disciples and His mother, as they take their place alongside Him, to assist Him in the great liturgy of salvation's unfolding - but also the beginning of our own soul's journey, towards understanding, towards the revelation of His life, towards faith and our own personal salvation. Cana opens the door to many events that we hear, year after year, but that still retain the power to move us - the curing of the sick and diseased, the restoring of those demented in mind and spirit, the feeding of the hungry, and the raising of the dead - and we are never less than moved when we read this opening chapter in the saga of miracles never seen before or since, and understand that the saga was to be told - and is being told for our sakes. But dear friends, there is much more to this story, and though we might plumb its depths without coming to an end, it is necessary for us to focus on one facet of its complexity, as we continue with our actions today, the actions of this 3rd annual Marian Conference, and the source of so much spiritual growth and strength for the Church we love here in North Georgia. We have often heard it said, that perhaps 80 to 90 percent of the makeup of the human body is simple water - the naturally achieved union of oxygen and hydrogen, permutated then by a design almost beyond our comprehension, the genetic fabric which defines each of us, making us who we are. And yet, how is this water made solid, how is this water made to grow, to divide to accumulate - what makes this water breathe, what imparts to it the powers to see, to smell, to taste and touch and hear - how is it that the cells of man and woman can meet in the sea of the womb, and become not just so much more water, but, miracle of miracles, a man, a woman, a living, organized, complex human being? When Christ, without a gesture, without the waving of hands or the uttering of secret formulas - without so much as a ripple to mar the steady calmness of His infinite power - turned that water in the vases at Cana into the finest of wines, was He not first and foremost reminding us of this most fundamental and primitive miracle in our lives - that God is the Master who makes us possible - that God's is the genius that can lift mere droplets of water into the framework that man is, and from which humans achieve so much of the reflected glory which is God's to begin with? This is what God did when He made Adam and Eve, and the joy of an unending wedding, a celebration without ceasing would have been theirs forever, except for one thing - they did not do what God told them - they disobeyed their Maker, and destroyed the perfect love with which He had enfolded them. And so, now, at this other feast, the feast at which begins the setting right of so much that had been done wrong, only after the warning is issued, does Christ, our Lord and the Son of God, play again with water, to make it something new and better, to make it the drink of joy, the very liquid which He will later choose as the carriage for the most precious of all liquids, His own Blood and the true wine of our salvation. And what is the warning that presages the miracle? the voice of our Lady, saying to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. The voice of the new Eve, announcing the second chance to the world, Do whatever he tells you. The voice of our Mother in Faith, dispensing to us the most important commandment we can follow, Do whatever he tells you. This was not a casual, an unrehearsed, or an unfelt dictum - it flowed from one who had looked upon the visage of an angel, who had given herself saying, "Be it done unto me," and who had become, by obedience, by choosing to obey, the Mother of God, the vessel of His Holy Spirit. Dear friends, as we learn from the thoughts we will hear and exchange during this conference, and as we prepare to enter the holy season of Lent, let us pray first, from the depths of our hearts, to have at least a shadow of this obedience, which Mary expressed as naturally as she breathed (, and as immaculately as she was conceived) ; and second, that the hand of the Lord will reach into our hearts and turn the water of our human wills into the strong, fortified wine of grace, to do His will. Then, may all the Church, by our actions and by our devotion, know better the joy of the Wedding Feast, the joy of Christ the Lord present in His holy Church. + |