Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,
While out to dinner this past week, the presence of four priests at a table caught the attention of another diner. He came over and greeted us, and said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to run some spiritual ideas by us that he had been pondering. We agreed to hear him out, not without some hesitation. He started by saying that he considered God as mind and consciousness. So far, so good. Then he continued, “so we are all parts of God.” Here I couldn’t agree with him, because creation is distinct from God and not just a part of him. Another priest at the table encouraged him, though, that his intuition was good: we are created in God’s image and likeness, so we are vitally linked to God. How best to describe this vital link to God if it doesn’t mean being a part of him?
This Sunday’s gospel of the Wedding Feast at Cana provides a beautiful illustration of our relationship with God. Jesus, the bridegroom of the Church, performs his first miracle at a wedding reception. There, he turns water into wine, which symbolizes the restoration of sanctifying grace to the human race. Jesus “weds” divinity and humanity, restoring our communion with the Holy Trinity. The celebrations of Christmas, the Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord, and the Wedding Feast at Cana all reinforce the same message: God became man so that man could become God (through grace). Life as a baptized, Spirit-filled member of the Church has a nuptial quality to it, although marriage itself is only a poor symbol for the reality of God’s communion with redeemed humanity.
Jesus, bridegroom of our souls, fill us with the new wine of the Holy Spirit!
In Christ,
Fr. Dave
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