THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Second Sunday after the Epiphany 20 January 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

We pray daily for “our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer. In doing this we remind ourselves that “man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We need not only food for our bodies, but even more importantly food for our souls. The water turned into wine in today’s Gospel symbolizes for us this transformation of bodily food into spiritual nourishment.

The stone vessels often are considered cold and hard. The spiritual instruction for us is rather, that stone vessels are enduring. These vessels hold and carry to us the supernatural truths that at first appear as ordinary or natural. The Church is symbolized by these stone vessels – She is enduring; She holds and distributes supernatural truths (drink) to all who will come to the wedding feast of Heaven. This drink first begins as plain water so likewise the doctrines of the Church appear often common and simple. If we only look closer we discover that the simplest and humblest of doctrines are the most profound and beautiful – the water is turned into wine.

In all our various stages of spiritual life we will always find what we need in these stone vessels (The Church). For those outside the Church they see empty vessels and have nothing to sustain their souls. For the beginner in the Faith they find refreshing but simple water. As we mature in the Faith and spiritual life we find the beauty and joy of wine that feeds the soul. The Church has something for everyone and all are to find their “daily bread” in Her.

Many enter the Church and find empty vessels because their souls are as yet empty. We often wonder if such people have any faith at all, or why they even bother to come to the Church. The hollow emptiness of the empty stone vessels can be found in all the false churches, and many flock to big “mega” Protestant churches in search of this vanity (emptiness). These false faiths have fine looking buildings but they are empty of true spiritual nourishment. Many in the Church see no appreciable difference between the true Church and the many false ones because they are only looking at the superficial and vain emptiness of the structures.

Some enter the Church and only taste water. The spiritual development has passed the vain empty stage, and they find true refreshment in the doctrines as they find true refreshment in water, but the joy that comes from the wine never seems to reach them. There are many that have a superficial “knowledge” of the doctrines of the Church and often they say things like: “I know my faith.” These often see no need to study any further; the brief superficial surface of the children’s catechism seems to be enough to satisfy them. Their “knowledge” is not yet love and so while they think they are drinking the wine of doctrine all they truly have is the refreshing water which should only whet their appetite for stronger drink, but sadly they are content not to go any further. These are the “infants” of the Church that are not ready for stronger drink, and they are often and easily led astray by temptations and the allure of the empty vain teachings of heretics.

The good wine is reserved for the last, for the mature adults in the Faith. To reach this stage we must first pass by the vain emptiness of so many false religions and find the true doctrine of the true Church. Upon entering the true Faith we at first seek out the refreshing water because we are still quite worldly and materialistic – eager for worldly blessings. While we imagine this to be enough, it is not. Knowledge is not sufficient, we must love. As our faith grows within us so must love. The young adult seeks to taste of the wine (love). For these, Christ turns the water into wine. The greater the love the more joyful becomes the wine.

Many times in our spiritual life we find that the wine runs short. Often it runs short without us ever being aware of the fact. We reach a spiritual stagnation or plateau. The joys of the faith seem to become common or we develop contempt for them because we have become familiar with them in a worldly manner. The wine has run out for all who find themselves in this situation. It is a dangerous situation because when the doctrines of the faith fail to taste like wine we are in danger of losing them all. The Word of God ceases to nourish our souls.

The devils are ever eager to silence and extinguish this love and often succeed in tempting us to allow the wine to run out and return us to a faith that is nothing but a hollow empty vessel. Many times in the spiritual life we may find ourselves dry or dark with the wine running out. We often fail even to see it coming so we neglect to beg it from God. This is where the Mother of God steps in on our behalf. We must invite not only God into our lives (wedding feast) but, we must also invoke His Mother. If Mary is loved and honored by us and welcomed into our daily lives, She will see when our wine is running short even before we do. Before we know what is taking place in our hearts as this love (wine) is drying up, She will go to her Son for us and say: “They have no wine.”