CELEBRATE SUNDAY
WITH ST. MARY'S
THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
God listens to His creation.
THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
As much as we are called to be obedient to God, God will also be obedient to us. Such a claim sounds scandalous, given that we are mere creatures of the Creator, but throughout Salvation History, God repeatedly indicates to us that He is willing to humble Himself and to bring Himself down to our level in order that we might be united to Him. In the past, He did so by developing personal relationships with His people through His messengers and prophets. Ultimately, he humbled himself in the most perfect way by becoming one of us in the person of Jesus Christ. God still humbles Himself even in the present age–He listens to our prayers.
READ THIS SUNDAY'S MESSAGE
One of the great criticisms that the Christian world has against the Apostolic Churches is the tendency we have to go to the saints for our prayer intentions. Why go to someone long dead, even if they are in Heaven, when we can go directly to God? The Catholic response to this is very simple and obvious: we are utilizing the sanctity of these holy men and women and their proximity to God so that our prayers may be heard also from those who have our sanctity within their hearts. This raises the issue, though, of how God responds to our petitions and who He chooses to listen to. If you were to ask Him for something material, would He grant it to you? If He does grant it to you, does that mean He would not have if you had not asked? God knows our heart in the most intimate way possible; He does not need to hear us articulate our desires to Him, nor does He need someone more holy than us to ask Him on our behalf. This is because prayer, communication with God, is for us. We need to articulate our desires so that we can discern whether they are in conformity to His will. We need the intercession of our community, whether on earth or in Heaven, to express our sincerity in our petitions. But most peculiarly, God will twist the world in such a way to respond to our requests and our actions; His plan for Creation was not just written by Him and set into motion, but actually takes into account the decisions and the desires of our own free will. For example, take the creation of a human soul: only God can create the soul and unite it to a body. But He only does so once humans freely choose to create a human body. God listens to us in more ways than just granting our requests; He listens, and obeys us, so that His world and His will may become more perfect.
The best example of petition, intercession, saintly involvement, and divine obedience is found in this Sunday’s Gospel. Jesus’ public ministry prioritized teaching and works, and by the age of 30, he had not started to perform either of these functions. His public life begins once he emerges from the wilderness after 40 days, but the fullness of his ministry does not begin until he is urged by his mother, the greatest Saint, to perform a miracle. We should be intrigued by his response, “my hour has not yet come.” Was he referring to his public ministry? Was he referring to his death? Would he have performed the miracle at the Wedding of Cana if his mother had not come to him? The most important detail is not trying to answer these questions, but to acknowledge that Mary’s petition and intercession on behalf of the wedding party was crucial to God-made-Man beginning his public ministry. In this moment, God obeyed His creation. When you go to God with your own petitions, like Mary, do not fear His silence. Understand that we have been shown time and time again that He will obey our requests, especially when they are sincere and conform to His Will. Our articulation and the intercession of the faithful will be all the more powerful in requesting that God listen to us and grant us what we need.
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