Today wraps up - or it does in 'Traditional' lectionary terms - the Scriptural offerings of Epiphany. Hitherto, the Lucan picture of Mary has concentrated our attention upon how attuned her Immaculate Heart is the will of God: "Let it be unto me"; "He has done great things for me"; "Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her Heart"; "And his Mother kept all these things in her Heart". But in this the traditional Gospel reading of the Second Sunday after Epiphany, S John steps up to the podium to show her as also attuned to the needs of others ("They have no wine"). Even though the Hour of her Son's Glory has not yet come, the intercession of her Heart mediates through shared obedience ("Do whatever he tells you") the first great Sign which manifests his Glory.
Scripture** tells us that, because her Heart is Immaculate, Mary Sees God, and the intercession of the one who Saw led to the Johannine Theophany. However, although the divine doxa was manifested to his own, his own received him not. But to all who did receive him - to all who beheld and behold his glory, glory as of God-only-begotten - he gives power to become (like himself*, indeed, in himself) the Son of the Virgin, born not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of the male, but as the Only-begotten of the Father and the one Seed of Abraham who is the one Child of Mary aeiparthenos kai polupais.
Her Immaculate Heart will prevail!
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*Whatever the origin of the 'Western' variant reading hos ... ouk egennethe, I feel sure that it accurately pinpoints the allusion intended by S John to the Lord's Virginal Conception and Birth.
**This paragraph draws on Luke 1:38,49; 2:19,51, John (and the apparatus criticus of) 1:13, Matthew 5:8, and Galatians 3:16.
Dear Father. Not a few theologians/priests have seen in the six waterspouts the six days of creation and, thus, the steward who tasted the best wine ever created couldn't account for its existence owing to his naturalism - Wine takes a long time to be made, especially quality wine, so where did this guy have it made. stored, and how did he have it transferred here? I never witnessed any of this happening
ReplyDeleteThe skeptics of the six days of creation - the evolutionists and the Theistic Evolutionists? The wine steward is their progenitor.
Surely the steward's words indicate that he himself had not witnessed the actual miracle - he had simply tasted the wine that had been brought to him and marvelled at wine of such quality being introduced at such an advanced point in the festivities.
ReplyDeleteThe only witnesses would be the waiters who had fetched the water to fill the jars, and had also drawn out the wine.
When Our Lord said 'My hour is not yet come', did He simply mean that His public life of travelling and miracle-working had not yet begun? Or was He perhaps thinking forwards to the miracle of transubstantiation He was to perform on the eve of His Passion?
Surely the steward's words indicate that he himself had not witnessed the actual miracle -
ReplyDeleteYes, that is why he is the materialistic progenitor of the evolutionist and theistic evolutionists, nearly all of whom think Genesis a myth and heap scorn upon those who believe Genesis is true (That includes me, but I am used to be laughed at and scorned and so have long become inured to its malign intent)
St Augustine: In the very beginning, Adam and Eve were the parents of all nations, not of the Jews only; and whatever was represented in Adam concerning Christ, undoubtedly concerned all nations, whose salvation is in Christ. What better can I say of the water of the first water-pot than what the apostle says of Adam and Eve? For no man will say that I misunderstand the meaning when I produce, not my own, but the apostle's. How great a mystery, then, concerning Christ does that of which the apostle makes mention contain, when he says, And the two shall be in one flesh: this is a great mystery! Ephesians 5:31 And lest any man should understand that greatness of mystery to exist in the case of the individual men that have wives, he says, But I speak concerning Christ and the Church. What great mystery is this, the two shall be one flesh? While Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, was speaking of Adam and Eve, it came to these words, Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24 Now, if Christ cleave to the Church, so that the two should be one flesh, in what manner did He leave His Father and His mother? He left His Father in this sense, that when He was in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking to Him the form of a servant. Philippians 2:6 In this sense He left His Father, not that He forsook or departed from His Father, but that He did not appear unto men in that form in which He was equal with the Father. But how did He leave His mother? By leaving the synagogue of the Jews, of which, after the flesh, He was born, and by cleaving to the Church which He has gathered out of all nations. Thus the first water-pot then held a prophecy of Christ; but so long as these things of which I speak were not preached among the peoples, the prophecy was water, it was not yet changed into wine. And since the Lord has enlightened us through the apostle, to show us what we were in search of, by this one sentence, The two shall be one flesh; a great mystery concerning Christ and the Church; we are now permitted to seek Christ everywhere, and to drink wine from all the water-pots. Adam sleeps, that Eve may be formed; Christ dies, that the Church may be formed. When Adam sleeps, Eve is formed from his side; when Christ is dead, the spear pierces His side, that the mysteries may flow forth whereby the Church is formed. Is it not evident to every man that in those things then done, things to come were foreshadowed, since the apostle says that Adam himself was the figure of Him that was to come? Who is, says he, the figure of Him that was to come. Romans 5:14 All was mystically prefigured. For, in reality, God could have taken the rib from Adam when he was awake, and formed the woman. Or was it, haply, necessary for him to sleep lest he should feel pain in his side when the rib was taken away? Who is there that sleeps so soundly that his bones may be torn from him without his awaking? Or was it because it was God that tore it out, that the man did not feel it? Well, He who could take it from him without pain when he was asleep, could do it also when he was awake. But, without doubt, the first water-pot was being filled, there was a dispensation of the prophecy of that time concerning this which was to be.
Surely the steward's words indicate that he himself had not witnessed the actual miracle -
ReplyDeleteYes, that is why he is the materialistic progenitor of the evolutionist and theistic evolutionists, nearly all of whom think Genesis a myth and heap scorn upon those who believe Genesis is true (That includes me, but I am used to be laughed at and scorned and so have long become inured to its malign intent)
St Augustine: In the very beginning, Adam and Eve were the parents of all nations, not of the Jews only; and whatever was represented in Adam concerning Christ, undoubtedly concerned all nations, whose salvation is in Christ. What better can I say of the water of the first water-pot than what the apostle says of Adam and Eve? For no man will say that I misunderstand the meaning when I produce, not my own, but the apostle's. How great a mystery, then, concerning Christ does that of which the apostle makes mention contain, when he says, And the two shall be in one flesh: this is a great mystery! Ephesians 5:31 And lest any man should understand that greatness of mystery to exist in the case of the individual men that have wives, he says, But I speak concerning Christ and the Church. What great mystery is this, the two shall be one flesh? While Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, was speaking of Adam and Eve, it came to these words, Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24 Now, if Christ cleave to the Church, so that the two should be one flesh, in what manner did He leave His Father and His mother? He left His Father in this sense, that when He was in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking to Him the form of a servant. Philippians 2:6 In this sense He left His Father, not that He forsook or departed from His Father, but that He did not appear unto men in that form in which He was equal with the Father. But how did He leave His mother? By leaving the synagogue of the Jews, of which, after the flesh, He was born, and by cleaving to the Church which He has gathered out of all nations. Thus the first water-pot then held a prophecy of Christ; but so long as these things of which I speak were not preached among the peoples, the prophecy was water, it was not yet changed into wine. And since the Lord has enlightened us through the apostle, to show us what we were in search of, by this one sentence, The two shall be one flesh; a great mystery concerning Christ and the Church; we are now permitted to seek Christ everywhere, and to drink wine from all the water-pots. Adam sleeps, that Eve may be formed; Christ dies, that the Church may be formed. When Adam sleeps, Eve is formed from his side; when Christ is dead, the spear pierces His side, that the mysteries may flow forth whereby the Church is formed. Is it not evident to every man that in those things then done, things to come were foreshadowed, since the apostle says that Adam himself was the figure of Him that was to come? Who is, says he, the figure of Him that was to come. Romans 5:14 All was mystically prefigured. For, in reality, God could have taken the rib from Adam when he was awake, and formed the woman. Or was it, haply, necessary for him to sleep lest he should feel pain in his side when the rib was taken away? Who is there that sleeps so soundly that his bones may be torn from him without his awaking? Or was it because it was God that tore it out, that the man did not feel it? Well, He who could take it from him without pain when he was asleep, could do it also when he was awake. But, without doubt, the first water-pot was being filled, there was a dispensation of the prophecy of that time concerning this which was to be.