Marriage and Social Justice: Reflections for the Synod on the Family - Part
III
“Three
days later there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and
his disciples had also been invited.
When they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the wedding was
all finished, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said, ‘Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come yet.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever
he tells you.’ There were six stone
water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the
Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty
gallons. Jesus said to the servants,
‘Fill the jars with water,’ and they filled them to the brim. ‘Draw some out now,’ he told them, ‘and take
it to the steward.’ They did this; the
steward tasted the water turned into wine.
Having no idea where it came from – only the servants who had drawn the
water knew – the steward called the bridegroom and said, ‘People generally
serve the best wine first, and keep the cheaper sort until the guests have had
plenty to drink; but you have kept the best wine until now.’
“This
was the first of the signs given by Jesus:
it was given at Cana in Galilee.
He let his glory be seen, and his disciples believed in him.” (John 2: 1-11)
In our previous reflections we have noted the
primary and ordinary understanding of our participation in the Eucharist as a
communion or participation in the consummation of our relationship with the
Lord Jesus. This communion represents the
fulfillment of the ideal image of marriage and the ideal relationship with God
to which we are called both individually and communally. The above passage, however, represents both
that ideal and another idea of the Eucharist that is part of the Catholic
understanding of the sacrament – food that purifies us and food that is
necessary for the journey.
Most reflections on the wedding feast at Cana
correctly remind us that this scene represents an eschatological fulfillment of
Messianic expectation. The abundance of
wine that Jesus provides to the beleaguered couple is God’s overflowing
abundance to the human race in the coming of the long awaited Messiah. In a sense the wine did not run out, but
rather God fulfilled the promises of long ago and provides an overfilling of
the stone water jars of purification.
This wine, symbolic of the blood of Jesus, is that which purifies us
from sin and restores our relationship with God. The reception of communion, then, is not
merely a reflection of our ideal image of relationship with God in consummation,
but it is also a way in which that relationship can be cleansed, renewed, and
restored.
Jesus’ multiplication of the wine at Cana looks
ahead to Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves and fishes in John 6, wherein the
biblical text clearly connects these miracles to Eucharistic realities. Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist reflects the
idea of communion as food necessary for the journey of life. The manna that the Israelites ate in the
desert on their journey to the Promised Land foreshadows the Eucharistic bread
that is Jesus’ body. It is indeed food
for our journey to the promised land of the Kingdom of Heaven. The necessity of receiving this food in order
to have life cannot be overstressed. The
Israelites would not have been able to survive their journey in the desert
without the life giving manna from heaven.
At the same time, we cannot survive the journey of live without
receiving Jesus, the bread from heaven.
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have
no life in you.”
So, we have seen three important ideas
regarding the Eucharist – three dimensions that all have to be kept in a
delicate balance:
- The Eucharist is the consummation of our
relationship with God, a reflection of the ideal image of marriage and
union with God and one another.
- The
Eucharist is the purification of our sinful selves, as the wine (Jesus’
blood) replaces the water of purification within those stone jars, and our
reception of Jesus’ blood then purifies us from sin.
- The
Eucharist is food necessary for the journey in this life to the kingdom of
God, just as manna was necessary heavenly food for the Israelites
journeying to the Promised Land.
In the conversation regarding the reception of
communion by Catholics in irregular marriages, it seems that some have placed a
great deal of emphasis on the first aspect of the reception of communion, and
while this aspect is important it is not the only aspect of the sacrament. On the other hand, some have insisted on placing
greater emphasis on the other two aspects of the reception of communion. If the goal of our pastoral outreach to
Catholics in irregular marriages is restoration and a gradual return to the
ideal within the lives of those experiencing brokenness, then it perhaps might
be more proper to emphasize aspects two and three in order to arrive at the
first aspect in the life of the person.
This approach means, however, that we keep all
three aspects in mind and make all three an aim within the life of every
Catholic to appropriate each one in our spiritual lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment