The fourth Luminous Mystery
a meditation:
"What do we do when the floor drops out of our Joy?
This is the dilemma of the wedding feast of Cana. Once they realize the want of wine, joy is gone and anxiety and fear set in.
In the Bible, wine symbolizes the joy and delight of life: 'you have given my heart more joy than they have when grain and wine abound,' (Ps4:8) or 'You bring wine to gladden our hearts' (Ps 104:15).
Wine represents delight; thirst represents desperation. Our parched souls long for more.
Yet the more we drink in the wine of the world, the more we remain wrung out, hung over, depleted, and defeated. Our life is filled with aches and pains of anxiety, stress, and unfilled yearnings.
We discover that what we thought was the best turns out to be only second best, the bottom of the barrel. We thought we drinking the good stuff only to discover the dregs.
Only in Jesus can we imbibe what satisfies our infinite longing.
Mary, the fountain of hope leads us to the fountain of holiness.
On the lips of the waiter, we discover how to savor what God offers, and we 'taste and see the goodness of the Lord' 'for you have kept the good wine until now.'
Here at Cana the senselessness of life gets filled with the flood of grace.
The miracle right smack dab in the middle of this ordinary reception leaves us longing 'to do whatever he tells you.' Once we have drunk we are thirsty to drink more.
For in Jesus we find a new friend and a 'new friend is like new wine, which you drink with pleasure' (Sirach 9:10)."
1 comment:
Father David, Very well said. You have a gift in writing about and interpreting the Gospel. This is one of my favorite Bible stories.
The floor dropped out of my Joy last year when a dear parish priest, friend of mine, passed away tragically and suddenly after I only knew him for a short time. The Holy Spirit worked through him to give my senseless life the flood of grace that my parched soul so desperately thirsted for in order to return to my Catholic faith. My life has had some aches and pains, anxiety and stress over his passing, but my soul yearns for my Lord,even more than ever now. Even when I feel as if I'm spiraling downward, I know God is with me and I climb out of the bottom of that barrel and am met with His infinite love and mercy. Yes, only in Jesus is my infinite longing satisfied. I will do whatever He tells me, I would give my life for Him.
Keep up your blog, you are a very good writer and we need more priests as yourself that aren't afraid to show their fervor and zeal of their faith to the people. The souls of the flock are very parched and hungry for God, they need more shepherds as yourself to lead the way. I have been to every Catholic parish in Victoria and have witnessed this hunger and thirst that God's people have shown. They are yearning for more. For the "Year of the Priest" may you con't to be the catalyst of the Holy Spirit,in order to cast your words of fire onto your flock, so their hearts will burn with love for Him. God Bless.
PS: My parents, brother and his family, go to OLV, but I'm a member of OLS. I sure do love to read your words of wisdom in your blog. Please con't on...
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