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Third Sunday after the Epiphany
“His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.”
Today we come to the third of those three big manifestations we commemorate in Eiphanytide: first, the visit of the Magi, then the Baptism of Christ, then finally his first miracle, turning water into wine. But unlike last week, today’s Gospel manifests something not only about Christ himself but furthermore something about what it means for us to follow him. And the character who reveals that aspect of the story is the very first person who gave her life to him, the prototypical Christian herself, his mother. It is revealed in what she says to him, and what she says to us: “They have no wine”; “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” First, let’s examine what she says to him; and it’s pretty simple: “They have no wine.” She sees the needs of others, and brings them before Jesus. In that as well, she is a model for us to follow, as an agent of intercession, praying for the needs of someone besides herself. But notice (and this is an important point) how she makes that intercession. For does she demand, “Jesus, make some of this water into wine”? Does she say, “You’d better do something to solve this, or they’re going to get mad and leave”? No, she does none of that. She doesn’t put any conditions upon her intercession, and most important she does not tell Jesus what to do. She doesn’t insist, “I want you to do this, this, this, and this,” the way we often do. That’s usually our approach to prayer, our telling God what to do. Rather, look at how she intercedes for them; she simply takes their need and places it at Jesus’ feet. “They have no wine.” “Lord, Lula Mae is suffering, and I lift her up to you.” “Bobby Joe is out of work, and I place him in your hands.” That is tough to do, because we want to be telling God how to solve it. “Get rid of her cancer right now.” “Get him that job he just applied for.” But that’s really not how we are supposed to intercede. That’s why he asks us then, “What is that to you and me?” (That’s a better translation of the idiomatic expression in the KJV, “What have I to do with thee?”) “What is your motivation in this? Make sure that you are asking this to be in my time and according to my will, not your own. Don’t demand of me what to do, and don’t place any conditions upon it.”
So we’ve seen what she says to him; now let’s see what she says to us. For at this point the story twists a bit, and here is where a lot of us would say to Jesus, “Well fine; if that’s how you’re going to be, see you later.” But that’s not what our Lady does. Rather, she has perfect faith that he will make things good in his own time and of his own power. Even though it seems as if he does not care or is not concerned, she does not let that discourage her, but rather still goes about the business at hand. They still need wine, so she continues to attend to that. She goes to the servants and gives them instruction as to what to do. And here we have what are the final words of the Blessed Virgin recorded in the Holy Scriptures: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” And you know what, I’d say that is pretty good advice, not just to those servants, but to every one of us. Whatever he says unto you, do it. And that’s just exactly what those servants did. Jesus then tells them, “Fill the waterpots with water,” and that’s what they did, no questions asked. Then he tells them to take it to the governor of the feast and pour it out for him, this man who was expecting wine; Jesus told them to pour this water into his wine glass—it doesn’t make any sense, but again, that’s what they did. They had no idea what to expect, for all they knew it was just water in there, but in Jesus’ own time he performed as he knew was best. The servants’ job was to follow Mary’s instructions: whatever he says to you, do it.
And that’s our job too. We’ve all got a copy of the Instruction Manual (I hope); so read it, and whatever he tells you to do in it, do it. How simple is that? Those parting words of Mary are just as relevant today as they were back then. And it’s good advice for us especially when we desperately want a huge, spectacular, immediate miracle, but we don’t get it, and instead feel as though God isn’t really paying us all that much attention. Just keep on keeping on and don’t let that discourage you when you think you are being ignored by God; what the enemy wants is for you to take it in the wrong way and to think you are being rejected, which you are not. You are being tested, not rejected. But in that sort of situation what we should wind up doing is (unfortunately) pejoratively termed “just going through the motions.” Well, even though it is looked down upon, there is something to be said for “just going through the motions” in a certain sense. Usually people mean that as the outward practice of religion without any corresponding inward faith, which is not what we are advocating and not what we want to be doing. However, often people will get faith and emotions confused, so there is this over emphasis on how you feel. People will question, “How can you be going to church when you are not feeling God’s presence? You’re being hypocritical.” But when you aren’t feeling his presence is exactly when you need to be going to church. That shows even greater faith because you are still willing to go through the motions. So even though we may be going through a spiritually dry spell, when we think we’ve run out of that wine and he is not going to provide us any more, that does not mean we should quit practicing religion, that we should neglect to fill up those pots at least with water. Often that perfunctory practice of it is what will keep us connected to God, even though we are just hanging on by a thread; if we cut that off, that puts us even further away, so that it will be more of a struggle to get back to him. Mother Teresa was once asked whether she had big private revelations of Christ all the time; surely somebody as devout and devoted as she deserved and needed that. But her response was, “No, not really.” Early on in her spiritual life she had received a few, but they faded as she matured in her faith. Rather what sustained her day by day was the regular, ordinary old Eucharist; that was really all she needed. In fact, after her death it came out that Mother Teresa had tremendous spiritual dry spells, but who would have guessed? For she could have responded to what may have appeared to be God distancing himself from her by distancing herself from him. But she didn’t. Rather, she just kept on doing what she knew she ought to be doing. She kept on bringing those who needed his help to him, and laying those needs at his feet, and was humble enough to allow him to do things in his time, and not in her own. And so she is one more model for us as to how to follow our Lord, just as was the one who gave us that most perfect advice, which Mother Teresa dutifully followed as well: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.”