The Wedding at Cana and Filling the Jugs to the Brim

Don't you love it when the homily was just what you needed to hear? Very spiritually uplifting and inspiring. It works out even better when you are at Mass alone and get to hear the whole thing without being distracted by littles next to you in the pew. ;) (Unfortunately, they are still sick, but maybe on the mend? Fever-free so far today.)

Today's Gospel was the Wedding at Cana. In the homily, Father pointed out that the water jugs that Jesus told the stewards to fill to the brim were huge - probably 30-40 gallons, This meant they had to haul the water and it probably took quite a while to fill them (no hoses or sinks!). What if one of the stewards thought, eh, this is a lot of work, and we don't even know what the point is, no one wants to drink water (since they weren't yet aware of the miracle), so the steward just begrudgingly filled his jug, and only filled it about halfway to avoid doing so much work. He figured that no one would really care or notice.

Would Jesus still have performed the miracle? Yes. Would the water in that jug still have turned to wine? Yes. But there wouldn't have been as much wine in that jug as in the others - it would have had the same amount of wine as there had been water. So, less wine than what Jesus really wanted. Not because of any defect on the part of Jesus, but because the steward didn't do HIS part.

It's the same thing with our spiritual life - God wants to fill us with the "wine" of divine grace ALL the way. Often the reason we struggle spiritually isn't because there's something wrong with God or that He isn't giving us blessings, but because we haven't done our part - keeping the commandments, being kind and charitable towards our family and our neighbors, praying regularly, receiving the Sacraments, doing penance for our sins. We have to keep filling our spiritual "jug", and like filling the water jugs, it takes a lot of effort. God WANTS to give us grace, but we have to dispose ourselves to receive it - we have to fill ourselves with the "water" so He can turn it into "wine", metaphorically.

He also gave the example of a young child at the zoo. The child may throw a fit and decide he doesn't want to walk anymore. If it's been a long day, he may be legitimately exhausted and his parents may carry him because he just can't take another step. But sometimes, the fit happens early in the excursion. The child may be a little tired and grumpy, but he is still capable of walking - so his parents encourage him to keep walking and don't give in to his tantrum. It's good for him to keep walking, even if he doesn't really want to. We are like the child and God is like the parent - sometimes we really have been doing our part and spiritually exerting ourselves and we are just worn out. If that's the case, God will carry us. But we have to truthfully examine whether our problem lies with US - are we just tired and whiny, but haven't really been putting much effort into it?

I have heard people say after Mass on occasion, "Well, I didn't really learn anything from the homily today." I don't think the point is to LEARN something, much of the time - but mostly to be reminded of things we may be slacking on! Today's homily was a great reminder for me. Hugely encouraging to put more effort into my spiritual life, into being more charitable to my family, and to focusing more on prayer, which admittedly falls by the wayside often with the demands of small children.

We know in our every day life that we sort of lose the right to complain about certain things when we make certain deliberate decisions. If I decide to stay up super late playing on the internet, I can't really complain the next day about being tired. If I spend a bunch of money on eating out, I can't complain at the end of the month when the money is gone and the pantry is bare. In the same way, I really cannot get upset at God for not helping me with ___ problem if I haven't put in the effort to ASK for help, and to do things that will ease my burden. I can't complain about feeling impatient with my children if I'm not regularly asking for the grace, in prayer, to be more patient, and if I'm not putting in TRUE effort to BE patient.

So, it seems that a resolution to fill up my spiritual jug is in order. I can certainly think of a couple concrete ways to do that - the specifics of which I will ponder privately, but which involve showing more charity at home: more patience, kindness, and gentleness, and much more consistency and effort in prayer.