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Bishop's Homily for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

January 19, 2025

[St. Roch Church, Kahuku (with Installation of Pastor)]

“They have no wine.”  They have no housing.  They have no hope.  They have no motivation.  They have no faith.

When the Virgin Mary saw that her friends who had invited her and Jesus to their family wedding were on the verge of a socially embarrassing crisis, she stepped in to intervene.  Her initial efforts to involve Jesus in doing something to save the reputation of her friends were rebuffed, but she did not give up.  And, of course, we see that not only did Jesus find a way avert the crisis by making wine from water, but its quality was better than the first wine, and its quantity was abundant, somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons!

We must never think, however, that what happened in the gospels are simply events of the past.  Jesus is still with us.  He is risen from the dead, and he still wants to be the savior of all who are in need of salvation.  And now the role of Mary is the role of holy mother Church – all of us who have been given diverse gifts by the Holy Spirit – so that like Mary, we may notice the needs of our sisters and brothers and bring them to Jesus.  But Mary had to go beyond simply presenting her request to Jesus.  She had to organize the servers, gather them together, and tell them to be attentive to the directives of Jesus.  Then they had to work very hard to fill to the brim those six stone jars with water.  Remember, there was no spigot in those days that they could turn on and simply wait until the water filled the jars.  They had to work very hard to draw water from the well, which was probably down the street.  Then they had to transport those very heavy jars back to the wedding banquet site so that they could present them to the headwaiter.

So when we see the tremendous problem of the homeless among us, it is easy for us to be silent, to be indifferent, and to say, “It’s not my problem.”  Yet because of our faith, we are called to be like Mary, not only presenting the needs of the homeless to the Lord in our prayers, but organizing the gifts and talents of the community so that this very complex issue can be effectively addressed once and for all.  It is easy for us to say, “My hour has not yet come,” and we would be in good company if we did, but we who are now the members of holy mother Church must challenge each other to go beyond our limitations and to realize that with our hard work and the power of God, miracles can be accomplished.

It is our duty to notice when people are out of hope.  Maybe they are so overwhelmed with difficulties in life that they find leaving life more attractive than embracing it.  Perhaps they are angry with God for loss of a loved one or for some devastating illness they are suffering.  Perhaps they look at the world with all its violence, its terrorism, its lack of respect for human life, and they see there is no way out but disaster.  It is just then that we need to not be silent but call upon the Lord on their behalf, then do whatever he tells us, his stewards of the Gospel, so that we can bring hope where there is despair and light where there is darkness.  And we may be surprised that such hope is not only enough to keep us from the brink of suicide, but gives us overflowing and abundant joy.

Sometimes people are out of faith.  Their faith is very weak, and they forget how merciful and loving God is.  Or they have put faith in themselves rather than God and think they have no need to worship the true and living God.  This is much more serious for them and for our whole culture than running out of wine at a wedding.  And so we, with our faith, even though it be only the size of a mustard seed, are called to use our diverse gifts to put these servants of God where they belong, right in front of Jesus, so that he can work on their hearts, turning the water of their routine living into the abundant joy of knowing him.

It is so important that we never forget that Jesus is not a long-ago, far-away person from the history books, but someone who is here with us now, in Word and sacrament, so that we, the members of holy Mother Church can bring before him all the needs of the world, not knowing what he will do, but having trust that he will in the end bless all with the overflowing joy of his love.