February 11, 2017 Saturday Feast of Our Lady of
Lourdes World Day of the Sick 1st Reading: GEN 3:9-24 Gospel: Jn 2:1–11
Three days later there was a Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the wedding with his disciples. When all the wine provided for the celebration had been served and they had run out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus replied, “Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come.”
However his mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”Nearby were six stone water jars meant for the ritual washing as practiced by the Jews; each jar could hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. Then Jesus said, “Now draw some out and take it to the steward.” So they did.
The steward tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing from where it had come; for only the servants who had drawn the water knew. So, he called the bridegroom to tell him, “Everyone serves the best wine first and when people have drunk enough, he serves that which is ordinary. Instead you have kept the best wine until the end.”This miraculous sign was the first, and Jesus performed it at Cana in Galilee. In this way he let his Glory appear and his disciples believed in him.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
I consider myself twice blessed having dipped my body twice at the bath of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. I was reluctant to do it on my first visit seeing so many sick people dipping into the same bath. But I ended up joining the queue and even returned a year after to take another bath. I don’t know if I was cured of any sickness. But my faith in the intercession of the Blessed Virgin deepened as I dipped into one of those pools. After all, Lourdes is not about the water considered by many as miraculous, but about the power of Mary’s intercession.
The Gospels testify to the power of intercession of Mary. At the wedding at Cana Jesus had no plans to do any miracle. It was not yet his time. When the wine ran out and the hosts stood to be embarrassed, Mary interceded. Jesus refused at first but ended up turning water into wine. His initial reluctance on reasonable grounds emphasized the power of Mary’s intercession. Mary exercises influence over God not because of any inherent power in her, but because God has looked upon her with great favor.
While I consider those two occasions of travelling to Europe and bathing in the waters of Lourdes double blessing, the greater blessing is really having Mary as mother who I could turn to anytime and anywhere. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM.
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