Is. 62:1-5; Ps. 96:1-3, 7-10; 1 Cor. 12:4-11; Jn. 2:1-11
“Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations” and do it by the “different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit” we have received. The glory of Jesus is once again revealed after the baptism of the Lord in the wedding at Cana transforming water into wine. The epiphany of this day is that God is revealing himself in Jesus by the transforming of water into wine for yet the greater transformation to come from wine into his blood. What marvelous deeds are to come from Jesus not to end in him but to continue in us as God is with us in the visible spiritual gifts we receive and put to use for the greater good.
God also desires to reveal himself through us in the working of the Holy Spirit by the spiritual gifts we receive to proclaim the glory of the Lord each according to our spiritual gifts. These gifts by their design are for the purpose of coming together in unity to share and build up the kingdom of God in his one body the church. Where there is God there is unity, communion, and grace abounds. Grace indicating “gratis” from Latin, a free gift of “God’s unmerited favor”. The power of this gift comes from coming together to build up the kingdom of God and “you shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the Lord.”
Who is “you”? Who does the Lord “rejoice” in and where is this “land” no longer “forsaken” or “desolate” but the “delight of God spoken of by Isaiah? For some it is still to come but for those who have accepted Jesus Christ the “Builder” has arrived and “you” the church coming together to build up the kingdom in the heavenly Jerusalem is “Espoused” as the bride of Christ. There cannot be a church of “one” between God and “I”. “For where two or three are gathered in my name there am I” (Mt. 18:20) is where God is.
God is in our home when we gather to pray, to give thanks for our meal, to offer a Rosary he joins us and rejoices in calling us his own. He is in our church in the freedom to gather and to worship in sharing our faith we serve as a channel of grace that brings joy, comfort, healing, and peace to our hearts. We cannot make ourselves “happy” by ourselves. It is not how we are wired even in our DNA one synapse has to transfer to another synapse the information needed to live. God’s creation is for unity. We have to be linked together to bring all the spiritual graces to form a stronger body in Christ.
In the same way our soul is not disconnected from our body. How we treat our body lifts our soul up to God or can injure our soul and our faith. All the evils that injure our body can separate us from God, drugs, abortion, prostitution, gluttony, and any other form of bodily abuse. It is often easy to ask “where is God?” when life spirals into despair. We would never think of asking ourselves “What have I done to God with myself?” A good examination of conscience and act of contrition can reveal to us more of ourselves and God’s love and mercy. “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You…” When we were born God gave us a gift. It was the gift of ourselves. When we were baptized, we received another gift. It was the gift of God himself. What we do with ourselves is our gift back to God. When we injure ourselves with sin, we injure God who is with us. The enemy works as much from within as through others.
We should guard against the enemy who has eroded God in the public square, from schools and seeks to “cancel” or “transform” what the church does in its schools, hospitals, and charity programs. To be clear the enemy is not government. It is not government against the church for that in itself is divisive and not the unity God desires. Every civil society has a means of governance including the church. The enemy is the spirit of evil that is working in the souls of those who seek to be the gods of this world. They hunger for their own power willing to sacrifice truth, goodness, beauty, and unity that is all that God is to be their gods at the cost of others.
We are not to be silent but to proclaim his marvelous deeds in recognizing and giving praise to God for the gifts we receive, how God is working in us and the truth of the gospel alive in us. Have we been blessed today? Have we expressed to each other the blessings we have received this day? How easy is it to express what is wrong in our day than what is right and to give thanks for what this day has provided for us? A conversion is a transformation of the heart to the mystery of God allowing us to see with the eyes of faith. So how does this work in the “real” world?
You may be familiar with the warning “children should not play with scissors they can poke their eyes out.” Accidents happen every day or we would not call them an accident. This week I accidently poked my eyeball with the tip of the scissors I was using to trim my eyebrow. My eye immediately started bleeding like a gory movie scene. I needed urgent care to examine and treat it. In the past the mind would have immediately indulged in negative thinking, “I could go blind”, “why God?”, “how this disrupts my day”, “what did I do to deserve this?”, all the standard reactions. That is not the mind of a believer.
As my wife came to pick me up to take me to the get medical care, she shared how there had been an accident on the expressway and had to avoid passing by it. My thought was how I may have been on the road at that moment where the accident occurred and my accident kept me it. I also took the day in which all my planning changed to be at rest and consider what I needed to do differently for my own well-being because of my monovision, I don’t see close up with my right eye. “Speak Lord your servant is listening”. It was also a time to give thanks that I did not injure myself permanently. God works in the world beyond our reality but he invites us to seek him, trust him and love him. Perhaps in sharing this story the lessons learned can serve others.
Since we all receive different gifts in order to be one in Christ we are called to come together and allow our gifts to be of service to each other. I am always amazed by persons who receive the gift of faith in abundance and don’t question God. It is a love without question. This faith leads to joyful trust in the Lord. I am always looking for understanding the mystery of faith knowing I am but this small limited brain. I benefit much from just being around someone “full of faith” as we all do. The same Spirit is living and acting in each of us and we are to proclaim God through our works of the Spirit. This same Spirit is calling us to “do whatever he tells you”.
God wishes to reveal himself through Christ in us in the gifts given to us. Now is not the time to be doubtful and wait for another gift or moment, or revelation to come or something spectacular to happen in our lives before we proclaim the goodness of the Lord. The spectacular is that we alive filled with someone greater than us and his name is Jesus.
We are it, the ones called to proclaim his marvelous deeds. In the domestic home we are it, to lift each other up. In the local parish, we are it, to have fellowship welcoming the stranger to our faith. In our neighborhood and community, we are it evangelizing by the service to our neighbor and the stranger. Does everyone need to walk the streets? No unless that is your particular gift. Some are very good speaking to the youth and others working with the elderly, some have a voice to sing on the mountain top and others only in the shower. We get it, now let’s go about doing it. Do whatever he tells you and proclaim it to the world then the “you” becomes the “we” in body of Christ and his church.
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