God is not a magician but ‘Lord of the universe’

We accidentally published the homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time in the Jan. 10 issue, a week early. This is the homily that should have appeared. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Is 62:1-5
Second Reading: 1 Cor 12:4-11
Gospel Reading: Jn 2:1-12

This Sunday, we hear how Christ changed water into wine during the wedding feast at Cana.

St. Athanasius pointed out that this happens naturally and gradually whenever vines grow and grapes ferment. What Christ did at Cana was to hasten and localize the processes involved.

Thus he showed that he was not a magician, perverting natural processes, as when the devil tempted him to change stones into bread. No; he showed that he was God, creation’s master, the power behind all fermentation.

In every happening, natural or miraculous, God “disposes his works according to his will,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “He is the Lord of the universe, whose order he established and which remains wholly subject to him and at his disposal.”

However, the universe “did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator,” the Catechism says. Instead, God created it “in a state of journeying” toward the ultimate perfection he designed for it.

In other words, God is a workman. The universe and all it contains are his ongoing handiwork.

This image of God appears many times in the Bible. “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his cherished plant,” the prophet Isaiah said. “Judge between me and my vineyard,” God said: “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?”

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower,” Christ said. “He prunes away every barren branch, but the fruitful ones he trims clean to increase their yield.”

In his plan for creation, God gives us “the dignity” of acting on our own, of causing things to happen and thus “co-operating in the accomplishment of his plan,” the Catechism says. Christ compared God to “the owner of an estate who went out at dawn to hire workmen for his vineyard,” calling anyone who was willing to work.

In this Sunday’s Second Reading, St. Paul emphasizes that everyone is called. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good,” he says.

God does not compel us to co-operate with him, as he compels inanimate nature. he enables humans “to be intelligent and free causes” in order to “complete the work of creation” and to “perfect its harmony,” the Catechism says. We co-operate with him by our “free choice and preferential love” for him.

In freedom, we can refuse, as we do when we sin. However, even our sins do not frustrate God’s plan, for, mysteriously, he knows how to derive good even from evil.

Therefore, if we do not co-operate consciously with God like a son or daughter, we serve him unconsciously, willy-nilly, like a tool. Moreover, we cut ourselves off from Christ the vine, and thus destroy ourselves, for “without a Creator” the things he has created “vanish,” the Catechism says.

Now comes the almost unbelievable part. If we do co-operate consciously with God, he raises us to the dignity of his own Son. That is what the master workman plans for us. he “divinizes” us, enabling us to participate in the life and love of the Holy Trinity.

Even here on earth, as baptized believers who eat Christ’s body and drink his blood, we already participate in this life. However, God will not rest until our “vindication shines out like the dawn” and our “salvation like a burning torch.”

The explanation—almost unbelievable—is that God loves us: not just with the love of a workman for his tools, but with the love of a father for his children, or a bridegroom for his bride.

By nature, we are merely God’s artifacts, things he has made, but now, as the First Reading says, our builder wants to marry us; if we consent, our maker will rejoice over us like a bridegroom over his bride.

Father Hawkswell is again teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English. The whole course is available in written form and Sessions 1-15 in YouTube form at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. Session 16, “Mary and Joseph,” will be available in YouTube form starting Jan. 16.