Brief synopsis of the readings: In Isaiah we read about how God will continue to bless Israel so much that other nations “will see your integrity, all the kings your glory.” No longer will they be seen as forsaken or abandoned. The Lord will take delight in them. John’s Gospel describes the wedding at Cana, attended by Jesus, Mary, and Jesus’ disciples. The host of the wedding ran out of wine and when Mary shared this with Jesus, he replied “Woman why turn to me? My hour has not come yet.” Undaunted, Mary told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them. The servants found six stone water jars, each holding 20 or 30 gallons and Jesus told them to fill these jars with water. Once filled, Jesus told them to draw some out and bring it to the steward who recognized that he was drinking wine. The steward then summoned the bridegroom and told him that this wine was the best wine of all: “People generally serve the best wine first, and keep the cheaper sort till the guests have had plenty to drink; but you have kept the best wine till now.”

Coming off our Christmas/Epiphany/Baptism readings we can be forgiven if we imagine that the relationship between Mary and Jesus was Perfect Mother/Perfect Son. But imagine being at a wedding with your mother when she tells you about a reception disaster and you say to your mother: “Woman, why turn to me?” I can’t imagine a context where that would turn out well for me or anyone I know.

But all kidding aside this reading speaks to an important aspect of our lives as Christians. The idea of asking God for what we need goes all the way back to our earliest days. That’s good, but sometimes we can become just a little complacent and begin to think of God as either one of our parents or Santa Claus where we ask for something and they decide if we should get it. I have to admit I go a little crazy when another Christian tells me that God hears our prayers but sometimes the answer is “no.”

Simply put I don’t believe that God bases his generosity on whether or not we deserve the toy we are asking for. Instead I suggest that God bases his generosity not on what we want, but on what we need. I once attended a funeral for a Baptist pastor and one of the speakers said this: “He didn’t always tell you what you wanted to hear but he always told you what you needed to hear.

Let’s face it: we were created by an incredibly generous God. Jesus snapped at his mother that his time had not come, but she knew better. And I’m pretty sure we can point to times when we didn’t think we were up to the job or at least we weren’t ready but someone who loved us knew better and allowed us to accept a responsibility. When I was in high school one of the priests suggested that I could serve on the liturgy committee. Almost everyone on the committee were my parents’ age and I couldn’t imagine they would take me seriously. But I was wrong and look back on those meetings with great affection. Jesus didn’t know his time had come until Mary pulled his vocation out of him.

We also recognize a generous God in the amount of wine he created. Anyone who has planned a wedding knows well that any number of things could go wrong and the importance of this day makes even the smallest mistake a disaster. When the steward saw that they had run out of wine he could only imagine that this would be the story told for years to come. How fortunate that Mary found out about it and told Jesus.

We don’t know how many people attended the wedding, but Jesus instructed that six stone water jars be filled with water. That translates to something between 120 and 180 gallons of wine. Imagine hosting a wedding with an open bar where each glass of wine was a mere $5.00 (knowing that it’s never that cheap). Ten bottles of wine ($50) loosely translates to a half gallon. That means that 20 gallons of wine would cost the host the equivalent of $12,000. “You want wine? I’ll give you more than you can ever serve.” It must have been an excellent few months for friends of the steward.

Some of you know this, but I was ordained a Catholic priest in 1994 and my first assignment as a priest was a disaster. I was sent as an associate to a pastor who didn’t want an associate and he made my first few months of priesthood incredibly painful. I was brand new and eager to please and I spent those first months desperately, unsuccessfully trying to make it work. Meanwhile my grandfather was dying and my 2 year old nephew was facing bilateral hip surgery. Only when I was at the end of my rope did I ask for a transfer, fearing that I would be labeled a “problem priest.”

You know the rest of the story. When I was offered a place in a parish in San Diego I took it, more out of desperation than discernment. It also was not an ideal assignment, but there was where I met the woman I’ve been married to for nearly 24 years.

I didn’t ask for someone who would fulfill my life and give me a life partner far above anything I could have asked for. I only asked for a parish where I would be valued and respected.

God didn’t answer my prayers. He gave me more than I could even imagine.

When I look at the wedding in today’s Gospel I recognize not only how Mary pulled out Jesus’ vocation, I also recognize I was given six jars of excellent wine.