19 Jan 2019
Gospel Reflection
Reflection & Dialogue with Questions of the Day:
Wedding vision with reality
The Gospel (John 2:1-11):
This was the first of the signs given by Jesus: it was at Cana in Galilee.
Combining vision with reality is no easy matter, be it in religious, political, or other areas. Vision sustains us. It gives direction and courage to work for personal ambitions and the social structures one believes in. Israel’s prophets, in particular after the disaster of the Babylonian exile, were rich in their vision and their hope for the nation’s future, for beloved Zion. We have a good example of this in today’s first reading. The biblical narrative also tells us that the course of Israel’s history did not conform to this vision. A prophetic vision gives God’s plan. How this works in reality will depend on the human response. From Israel and Zion, this prophetic vision was transferred to the Church.
The Gospel reading on the wedding feast at Cana also contains a vision of Christ’s work. This began with the first sign at Cana and was completed at the hour of his glorification at the crucifixion and ascension. It symbolised the transformation of Jewish ritual and festivals. But this transformation, this divine mystery, had to be lived out in each Christian community, with all the attendant weaknesses and pettiness. We have an example of it in the Church at Corinth. Paul had to alert the followers of Christ to the dangers arising from the loss of concentration on the central truths of Christianity.
“By all means let us keep our vision alive, but let us wed it with reality.”
The problem of wedding vision with reality in a constant one Church life. As a current example, we may take the Second Vatican Council. It gave a new formulation of the Christian message, intended to have the Gospel message address the men and women of our own day. Sometimes today there is strong criticism of the Church for not having implemented the teaching, the vision, of Vatican II. In general, by using the term “the Church” in such a context, what is meant is what is often referred to as the institutional Church. In this regard, two points may be made. First of all, the Church first and foremost is the entire people of God, and one must thus ask how much have they implemented the Council’s teaching. Secondly, when there is a call to return to the “spirit” of the Vatican Council, in this and in other matters one must not forget the changes that taken place in Church matters since the Council: the growing movement of secularism and atheism, and various clerical scandals. By all means let us keep our vision alive, but let us wed it with reality.
Fr Martin McNamara MSC