David

Today’s gospel follows John the Baptist’s preparation of the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah. John’s mission is to communicate as clearly as possible that God’s people are in feeble spiritual health. John knows that God’s chosen one is coming to offer a new way of knowing and relating to God.

Of all Jesus’ miracles, we might think his turning water into wine is the least significant. However, for John, this miracle at the wedding feast of Cana takes pride of place as the first of the ‘signs’ given by Jesus.

Today marks a turning point in the liturgical year when we move out of the Christmas festive season into Ordinary Time.

What’s being revealed to us twelve days after Christmas, because this is what Epiphany means: something is shown, or revealed to us. We’re all in holiday mode and then these Magi, these wise men appear, following a star.

What a year it has been as the pandemic raged across the world for a second year. It’s been a hard time in so many ways. But now, at last, it’s Christmas and we gather to give thanks for the many graces and blessings in our lives, despite the hard times, and to rejoice in the greatest gift of all, Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, and our world and our destiny forever changed.

Fresh from her encounter with the angel Gabriel, “Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country” to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was herself bursting with pregnancy in her old age. This meeting of two Spirit-filled pregnant women, seeking to understand what God is doing in their lives, is remarkable in the way it captures their very human interaction along with their prophetic voices.
In Scriptural terms, all this occurs with the highly unusual absence of male voices in the conversation.