'Be fruitful and multiply.' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

John 2:1-11 from The Gospel of John

Directed by Philip Saville

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 2:1-11 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

At that time: There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding seventy or one hundred litres. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.’ So they took it. When the master 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 master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people 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.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Marriage at Cana

Tintoretto [Web Gallery of Art]

Back in the 1960s when I was in the seminary here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, now the residence of about 70 retired Columbans, I contacted Molly and Jimmy who lived about ten minutes by car from here. I knew that Molly was related to me through my maternal grandmother and I remembered attending the funeral of her mother, known to my mother as Aunt Jane of Tara, in 1950 when I was seven. As far as I know Jane was a first cousin of my grandmother Annie Dowd, who married William Patrick Collins, my maternal grandfather. When my mother was young she would spend part of the summer with her Aunt Jane and her husband Owen. It was great for a child form the inner city in Dublin to be out in the countryside of County Meath. She often spoke of those days and would always smile when she mentioned her Uncle Owen. Jane was the stricter one and Owen was the 'softie'. But she loved both of them.

Continue at Bangor to Bobbio.