L'Angolo di Girolamo Savonarola: Catholic homiletics in lean times

GIVE THE WORST WINE WHEN EVERYONE IS DRUNK AT THE CANA WEDDING

.

If we want to be honest, in the original text of John, Jesus did not specifically say: "Everyone put on the table at the start and good wine, when you are already drunk a lot, an inferior one ". The phrase translated into Italian is faithful undoubtedly, but Jesus, to be precise, He does not say "when you are already drunk a lot" but says, "When everyone is already drunk puts on the table the worst wine".

.

Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo.

.

PDF print format article

.

.

Jesus Christ be praised !

.

The drunk in taverns Brouwer scenes [Author: Adriaen Brouwer, Flemish painter, 1605 circa]

What the Apostle John offered in this IIª Sunday in Ordinary Time [see text WHO] It is a gospel that encompasses many peculiarities. First John is an eyewitness, Active in the narrated events.

.

Before that even in modern exegesis exploded a certain form of "real socialism", not afraid to call John, "the disciple whom Jesus loved", "The beloved disciple". Fondness canceled by some interpreters present in it have almost wanted to read a "divine contradiction", ruling that preference is bad, because to God we are all equal. What is not true, because to God we are all different and all unique in our precious diversity. Moreover, the preference, or healthy predilection, It is not at all a synonym of injustice, especially with careful balance we prefer those who deserve it. And God made man, we have to somehow recognize both prudence is the balance, human and divine, pace of modern exegetes and interpreters. Therefore, in preference humanly, Christian and lovingly understood, there is nothing untoward.

.

What John is a particular Gospel, first of all because it comes from the story of an Apostle who had a very direct contact with the Lord, whose predilection was able to enjoy. And if anyone would still doubt the understandable human and divine predilection, divine and human of the Lord to John, one need only reflect on a phrase that leaves no room for doubt. Under the Cross, before expiring, Jesus "Seeing his mother, and beside her the disciple whom he loved, He told his mother: “Donna, here is your son!”. Then he said to the disciple: “Here is your mother!”. And from that hour the disciple took her into his " [GV 19, 26-27].

.

Jesus entrusts to this young man, little more than a boy, the one who allowed the Word became flesh, the Vergine Maria; and entrusts to him, not least because, Meanwhile, others had fled, keeping at a prudent distance from the cross.

.

So are the facts, narrates the historicity of the Gospels, I'm not a collection of "metaphors" to interpret beyond the facts "merely symbolic", or as some scholars say: by de-mythologizing carefully. The Gospels contain true events, to read and understand. The Gospels are not symbolic tales, because internally they contain a precise and at times flawless historicity.

.

Much could be said about images of the wedding at Cana, where the true bridegroom is Christ and where Mary, sitting at the banquet, It is the mother of the Church which wed with the Lamb Immolated. And in this feast Jesus, changing water into wine, offers man a true and full transformation through the action of divine grace of the Holy Spirit. It's still, the nectar of the vine, then end up becoming blood of Christ, which will be with the Eucharistic Sacrifice element bread, alive and holy memorial.

.

At the end of this Gospel passage, Giovanni specifies: "This, in Cana of Galilee, It was the beginning of the signs performed by Jesus ». In John's Gospel abound "signs" narrated and used to guide the people to faith in Christ. That accomplished in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs, or rather a prototype that anticipates in its own way the whole series "signs" following, to grasp, read and interpret the wake of the sign at Cana in Galilee: healed the paralytic by the pool of the Sheep Gate [cf. GV 5, 19], healing the sick son of the royal official at Capernaum [cf. GV 4, 46-54], the healing of the man born blind [cf. GV 9, 1-40], the multiplication of the loaves [cf. GV 6, 1-13] Jesus walking on rough waters to the disciples on the boat [cf. GV 9, 16-21], the resurrection of Lazarus [cf. GV 11, 1-44].

.

Obviously we are used to read the Gospels in our current language. But this should not lead us to forget the fact that the languages ​​in which we listen to them today are translations of the original texts of the Gospels, in which are often scattered words are not easy to translate from the original writing language to our modern languages. We have to note that what John - who writes in Greek twenty centuries ago - does not use, like other evangelists, the term tέraton, which means prodigy, or better wine miracle; John uses the term shmeίwn, which means sign. Then if we want to be honest, in the original text of John, the man who ran the banquet, to be exact it does not say to Jesus: "Everyone put on the table at the start and good wine, when you are already drunk a lot, an inferior one ". The phrase translated into Italian is faithful undoubtedly, But, to be precise, He does not say "when you are already drunk a lot" but says otan mequsqwsin ton elassw, which literally means: "When everyone is already drunk puts on the table the worst wine".

.

In the Gospel of John the “sign” is an act of grace clearly visible that Jesus fulfills the pedagogical purpose to lead the faithful to the gradual penetration of a higher reality that the senses can not perceive, but that can seize.

.

John uses the term “signs” the plural because it does not intend to be limited to the miracles performed by Jesus, because all the actions of Christ are signs that lead to faith and in their own way they want to lead us to faith. An example is the miracle of miracles summed up by John in the monumental prologue of his Gospel, which begins with the words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God". Then to come through this crescendo of truth of faith to the announcement of the most unthinkable of miracles: "And the Word became flesh", the mystery of God made man. Mystery before which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews says that "Faith is the assurance of things hoped the conviction of things unseen" [CF. EB 11,1]. For John, the sign is thus a visible element that leads to the invisible, because faith is a sign of the invisible world, the reality of God. This is why the Gospel of John ends with these words: "Jesus did many other signs … these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ " [GV 20,30-31].

.

No one today, directing the eternal wedding feast of Christ with his Church can never say: "You have kept the good wine aside so far", because after the incarnation, the life, the death and resurrection of Christ, we have been given good wine until his return to the end of time, because "The groom" Christ "is the one to whom belongs the bride» [GV 3, 29]. The bridegroom is Christ head of the body which is the Church [cf. With the 1,18], and every day, through the mystery of his body and his blood alive, real presence among us, we celebrate the marriage of the lamb, Christ, with his bride, the church.

.

the Island of Patmos, 19 January 2019

.

.
.

.
«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
but bring, spread and defend the truth not only of
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure Paypal system:

or you can use the bank account:
They were IT 08 (J) 02008 32974 001436620930
in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]

.

.

.

.

.

.

.