This is why we must do more than just show up for Holy Mass. We must participate actively, fully, consciously, and fruitfully at the Holy Mass.

John 2;1-11 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. January 17th, 2016

In today’s Gospel we hear of the Mystery of the Second Luminous
mystery of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary—the Wedding Feast of Cana. Every mystery of the Holy Rosary has a grace assigned to it. And so, the grace we ask for while contemplating of this new mystery of the Holy Rosary, is the grace to more fully offer ourselves—all that have, do, think and are, to Jesus through Mary. We entrust ourselves to Jesus Mother so that she can help us to offer ourselves in Faith, Hope and Love to the God who has given us everything, even to our very existence, all in order that we can become One with God-the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and for all eternity. This is the purpose for which each of us as been created—to be one with God in a union of love.

You may not have thought about this before, but what is that God really wants from you? What He really wants from you is simply “you.” In other words, we can say that God desires to wed you soul, to bring you to Himself and make you one with Him in the ultimate of all weddings…and the two shall become one. A Sacramental marriage between a man and woman symbolizes and points to this Wedding of all weddings.

And so, one of most used imagery God uses throughout the bible to describe what sort of relationship He wants with each of us is wedding imagery. We hear it in our first reading from the book of Isaiah: As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder (capital B) shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you. In other words, “Your Creator God shall marry you!” So it is no coincidence that Jesus begins His public ministry, His ministry to heal and save souls bring them to union with God, at a wedding feast.

Now for the men listening to this, the ideal of God wedding your soul may seem somewhat foreign. But we mustn’t think of this in a carnal way, but in a spiritual way. The purpose and end of all love is union—to be close and even one with the one we love and who loves us. And there is no one who loves us more than God Himself; in fact it is His love that keeps us in existence; His love has given us everything we have, including those we love. And in His love for us, He wishes us to love Him in return, and so to be close to Him; and in fact, One with Him.
How and where does this union with God begin to take place? Well it begins with our baptism. In our baptism our soul was given the capacity to become One with God. And then through the other Sacraments, if we receive them with a proper disposition, this union is nourished, grows and becomes perfected. That is, as long as we continue to give our yes and cooperate with this plan of God by keeping His Commandments with the help of His grace and offering our hearts to Him more and more completely.

And the primary place where we come to give our yes and cooperate with this plan of God and offer ourselves to Him is at the Holy Mass, each and every week. This is why the Holy Mass is called the “wedding feast of the Lamb.” It is the place were Jesus, the Bridegroom, literally comes down from Heaven anew in the flesh, in the Holy Eucharist and gives His yes, His “I Do” to His bride the Church, that is to each one of us when He says, “This is my Body, given up for you.” “This is my blood given up for you.” Jesus is here saying, I love you so much that not only do I give you my “I do” but I offer you my total self, all that I am and have, the fullness of my love, my complete self-Body, Blood, and Soul. And because Jesus is God, this means He is saying as well, I give you even the fullness of my Divinity.

But in order for this union of our soul to God to take placed at the Wedding Feast of all wedding feast, which is the Holy Mass, we--you and I must give our “I do” in response to Jesus’ “I do.” Think about it this way, what happens if at wedding between a man and woman, one or more of them refuses to say “I do,” or says “I do,” and really doesn’t mean it. In this case, does a wedding occur, is the marriage real or valid? Or is it a wedding if one of the two doesn’t show up or shows up but doesn’t participate? Of course not. Both man and the woman must freely, in love, give their “I Do” to each other, which means offer their complete self to one another. In other words, each one must say in a sense, “This is my body given up for you; in love, I give myself to you forever in order to become one with you in union of unending love.”

A man and wife, if they say these most beautiful of words, and if they mean these words, then the two of them will become one in love. And then these beautiful wedding vows are consummated; which means they become one forever until death do them part, not only in words but also in the flesh, during the marital act the night of the wedding. The fruit of this union is life and joy, not only for the couple themselves, but also for another person who is conceived and born as a fruit of this union of love.

So too, and even in more perfect way at the Holy Mass. If we give our “I do” to God, offering to Him at the Altar our complete “yes” our complete self in love we to can become one with God, not only until death do us part but for ever. In fact, at the Holy Mass our “I do” our wedding vows with God also become consummated at the martial act of the Holy Mass. And the Marital act of the Holy Mass is Holy Communion where we become “one flesh” with Jesus when we consume His Body into ours, His blood into ours. The fruit of this union is eternal life and joy, not only for ourselves, but also for other souls who will through our living communion and union with God, come to be born again in the spirit and so share in this eternal union of love with God as well.

This is why we must do more than just show up for Holy Mass. We must participate actively, fully, consciously, and fruitfully at the Holy Mass. For the marriage of our souls to God to occur at Holy Mass, we too, like a husband and wife must more and more completely give ourselves to God, Who comes again and gives himself to Us. In fact, our Holy Communion with God at Holy Communion only bears fruit in our lives, in our families and in our world to the extent we give our selves to God in love—In other words, communion only turns to union with the two say “I do” and mean it. And in our cause, live out our “I do” faithfully in our daily lives for Love of God and for love of neighbor for love of God.

And,this is why we need the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was the one who most perfectly gave her yes, her “I do,” the gift of our complete self to God. She will help us at each and every Holy Mass we attend to more and more trustingly give ourselves to God. She will obtain for us the grace to live our life, like she did, faithful to our yes to God by doing whatever He tells us and giving our self to Him completely at Holy Mass thus bearing great fruit in our life—the fruit of holiness—oneness with God. She will then use us to lead others to the “Wedding Feast of the Lamb” and so come to share in the consummation of love for all of eternity.





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