Sunday of the Entrance into Great Lent: the Sunday of the Sign at the Wedding of Cana
Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans 14:14-23
Brethren, I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for any one who thinks it unclean.
If your brother is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.
So do not let your good be spoken of as evil.
For the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit;
he who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for any one to make others fall by what he eats;
it is right not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble.
The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God; happy is he who has no reason to judge himself for what he approves.
But he who has doubts is condemned, if he eats, because he does not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Gospel of Saint John 2:1-11
On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;
Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.
When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast.” So they took it.
When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom
and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Meditation:
“On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee.”
The season of Lent is the season of holy joy,
of entering the wedding feast of heaven and union with the Bridegroom,
Christ, risen from the dead and glorified.
That is why Lent is the season of preparing to enter the heavenly wedding feast.
You are the old jars that have run dry of wine.
Your works and your own righteousness are no longer enough,
your rites and your outward celebrations have become barren,
your sacrifices and your incense now breed only sadness,
your earthly joys and sorrows have been coloured by worldliness,
and all have become drunk on their errors and the corruption of their deeds.
So the time has come for God to work in their lives.
The Virgin interceded and stepped in:
she told the servants to obey the Son.
And the jars were filled with water at the Lord’s command,
so as to be saved in Christ
and be drunk with the wine of love! And the wine is the wine of your love.
And the season is the season of joy,
the season of meeting the precious Beloved,
the season of repentance and of returning to the house of God the Father,
the season of entering the glory of the resurrection.
Light has triumphed, and darkness is defeated.
Rejoice: Christ is risen!
Gisèle Farah Tarabay
