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Word To Life
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Sunday Scripture Readings: Jan. 14, 2007
By Dan Luby
Catholic News Service
January 14, Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle C Readings:
1) Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
2) 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
3) Gospel: John 2:1-11
When word came down that my favorite teacher of freshman year was being transferred, I was outraged. Who else would "get" me the way he had? Who else could have a passion for books that fueled my own? Who else was up to the impossible task of making Latin, if not exactly exciting, at least bearable?
The answer was, "nobody."
My mother listened sympathetically, commiserating with my angry disappointment. Tentatively, because of my voluble fury, she invited me to consider a possibility. Could I imagine, she asked, a future in which I would like the new teacher even more than the one leaving?
It was a preposterous notion. I shook my head in mute dismissal.
Turns out she was right. The new guy was a younger, hipper, funnier version of his predecessor. His classes were livelier, his discipline more relaxed. The progress I'd made my first year was nothing compared to the leaps and bounds I grew in the second.
In Sunday's Gospel we hear the familiar story of the Wedding Feast at Cana. When the wine runs out and his mother calls his attention to the needs of the newlyweds and their guests, Jesus more than replaces what's missing. He turns the water into not the inexpensive wine that's run out, but a wine of distinction. He doesn't simply refill the wine jugs. Six large water jars, more than 100 gallons, create a superabundance for the enjoyment of all the guests.
Discipleship in Christ often demands letting go of familiar comforts and pleasures, things that are, in themselves, good. That's the bad news.
The good news is that, unfailingly, even if sometimes beyond our immediate awareness, what fills the empty places is richer and deeper and more valuable. For in the end, everything lost is replaced with Christ himself.
QUESTIONS:
What's one time I remember something good in my life being replaced by something dramatically better? On whom can I rely for good advice about the needs of others?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"But you have kept the good wine until now" (John 2:10).
END
Copyright © 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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