Good News of Incompleteness (Cana) (2022-01-16, Sunday-02)

__ Click Here for Audio of Homily __

__Click / Watch Video: "Mass at 9:30am"___

Homily – Jan. 16, 2022 /  2^nd Sunday   ● Isaiah 62:1-5 ● Psalm 96  ● 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 ●  + John 2:1-11 ●   Title:   Good News of Incompleteness

[__00_]   This morning I came to the church and, FIRST … unlocked the doors. THEN,  I turned on the lights. THEN,  observed that the sound system was on our sound system actually is on all the time, I didn't have to turn on the sound system.

THEN,  I set up some books. And then I went to turn on the heat. That's the thing that makes this room warm. So the temperature goes up, and the heat did not come on. I left the church, and I didn't think about oh, wow, that was great. The doors got unlocked, the lights went on, the sound systems on, I didn't think about all the things that had gone well, I thought about the one thing that was wrong. The one thing that was unfinished or incomplete. I read that there's something in psychology

 

psychgology / Zeigarnik effect, the tendency to remember unfinished tasks better than finished tasks.

The Zeigarnik effect states that people tend to remember unfinished or incomplete tasks better than completed tasks.

[__01_]   The effect was first observed by Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, who noticed that waiters in a café (Vienna) could recall the orders they had not yet delivered better than those they had distributed.

Aren’t you glad to know that your waiter in a café or restaurant – or that Amazon –remember your order – which is incomplete – better than the orders  they have already delivered!

[__02_]    [1^st DEFICIENCY.]

What is unfinished or feels “incomplete” about your life or your work right now?

          Many things about our health, our finances, our schedule may make us feel incomplete.

          Recently, I had this feeling and fear that I would not be able to finish or complete something that was very dear and important to me.

          Recently, my friend told me that his mother died, passed away at the age of 95.

          My friend and I have known each other since college and we were roommates for one year. He could not take me / stand me for more than 1 year.

          He asked me to celebrate his mother’s memorial / funeral Mass and help him with all the arrangements. While I was honored to do this, I also felt some pressure, some mental stress because I was also going to speak about my friend’s mother at the funeral Mass.

          I felt “incomplete” – and was thinking about this “incomplete” task for several weeks.

          I felt like the couple in the wedding at Cana in Galilee.

          I had no wine.

My HD hard drive of memories was blank. Everything in my “BYO” reserve was dry.

However, when I sat down to pray, when I took some time for silence, a significant memory came to mind of my friend's mother. It was had to do with an autobiography of a college professor  who had lived us live successfully and persistently despite his blindness, lack of vision.

In a sense, he also had “no wine.”

This autobiography made a big impression on me. And, my recall of this was not my own doing. It was Holy Spirit coming to me to enlighten me, to fill my own glass with a better wine with a better vintage than I could have come up with, on my own. So I just encourage you in your moments of deficiency, and your moments of not knowing what to say, to take time in prayer in quiet and enlightenment to ask for help.

In this case, this moment of “deficiency” reminded me of someone who was a mediator of God’s “infinite” love to me.

Mary, our mother knows we have no wine. She is praying for you. From deficiency to infinity.

 

[__03_]    [2^nd. DECLARATION.]

The miracle of Cana is not simply about the abundance of wine – and the fact that there was a BYOB tradition even then… those ancient guests would have brought their own wine. This miracle is also about the blessing and holiness of marriage and about what God brings.

The “wedding” or joining is not only for the bride and groom at that wedding but also about Jesus laying down his life for you and for me.

Do you recall that there is always a kid on the playground or in the backyard who will do something like this when he makes an oath or swears an oath and he says… “cross my heart and hope to die.”

That kid may be exaggerating ..but he is doing or striving for exactly what Jesus is doing ..he is backing up his oath and promise to us by his whole life.

And, that is what every man and woman entering into marriage is doing for his wife, for her husband.

Marriage symbolizes what God does for us and also what God wants to work in our lives.

He wants to make what is incomplete into what is complete.

So, it’s just a reminder that marriage is not just about what the man brings and the woman brings and whether they keep satisfy each other safe and secure.

In my own experience of taking “vows” / promises as a priest at my ordination, I recall that I did not say very much – speak very much out loud at the actual ordination. But, I have this very distinct memory of the ritual in the beginning when the name of every candidate for ordination was called. My name was called  and I announced “present”. I am present. But, I am also aware that my “presence” alone is not enough. It is God working through me and through you as well.

And it is significant that Jesus takes the water, what is transformed here, Jesus takes the water for Jewish ceremonial washings and purification takes in a sense, the lowest quality water the most degraded water, and turns this into excellent wine. Jesus takes the water being used for something relatively superficial, for the for the hands, feet and the skin and transforms it into something that we can drunk, can consume and can convert us to Jesus Christ.

Marriage is about a 3^rd person, Jesus Christ, in whom we are all “related” and completed by his marriage to us, by his sacrifice.

 

When I read more about the “psychology” and the effect of remembering things that are unfinished, I was interested to learn that – understandably – we often fear getting started on a big project..just because it may seem overwhelming. This is a reason for procrastinating. Like I need another reason !

Anyway, my point is that the researchers also want you to do something that Christ encourages … just get started… start with something small…. Then you will remember the road  you are on and the goal you have.

Jesus also invites to start small and remember that both God and love are in the details.

We also can be transformed as his disciples and in living the our vow to him….  Both in “health and sickness,   in good times and in bad, for richer for poorer, we can know that his love, his way, is the best wine that we could not bring on our own. Jesus  completes what we cannot do on our own.

[END __]