2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2010
Fr. Bob VerEecke, S.J.
I didn’t expect to be preaching today. Our deacon who was supposed to
preach called me to say that he was under the weather so we wouldn’t be
hearing from him. To be honest I was very happy that I wouldn’t have to
preach this afternoon, though earlier in the week when I had seen the
scriptures I was sorry that I wouldn’t be preaching. The scriptures today are
so beautiful, so full of life, joy. The themes of wedding, of gift, of
transformation permeate the liturgy today. In fact, they continue the themes
of the Christmas season, even though we have moved into Ordinary Time.
The reason that I am reticent to preach today is because of the enormity of
the human suffering we are seeing and in the stories we are hearing after the
horrific earthquake in Haiti this week. Who can not be touched by the
heartbreaking images of this kind of devastation? Whose heart is not rent by
the stories of loved ones waiting to hear some word that their family member
or friend has miraculously survived? The suffering in Haiti is on such an
enormous scale that it is incomprehensible.
And so here we are praying together, listening to the word of God that is
unusually joyful with a tragedy of staggering proportions coming to us
through the images we have seen in the media or through the personal
contact with the Haitian people that we may have. What can we possibly say
that gives any order and meaning to the chaos that the people of Haiti are
experiencing? The question that always arises in times of natural disaster (as
if any disaster should be called natural) is: Where was God in this? Why
does God let these things happen? In this case, here is a nation that is the
poorest in our hemisphere where the great majority of people have nothing,
who live from day to day scraping out an existence, and now this? Where is
the justice of God? Where is the faithfulness and love that is God’s promise
to his people?
Our deacon told me that he was going to try to connect the story of the
wedding feast of Cana with the tragedy of Haiti. The link would be this: just
as Jesus “saved the day” for the couple who were celebrating their wedding
by saving them the embarrassment of running out of wine, so Jesus is in the
midst of a suffering people. Jesus is working through the hands of search
and rescuers, through the efforts of each person who is responding to this
crisis. My first reaction to his idea was to say, “I don’t think so. The tragedy
is on such a grand scale that I don’t think you want to try to make any links.”
Yes, the Crucified Christ is in solidarity with the suffering people of Haiti.
He always has been and always will be in solidarity with the poor. But does
it make sense to compare a joyful day in the life of Jesus’ family and friends
with the terrible and terrifying events of the past week? My first reaction is
to say “no.” It is better to stand silent before the incomprehensible tragedy
than to try to make sense of something that has left a land and a people
“desolate.”
And yet, we are here as people of faith who believe that God is in an
intimate relationship with his people in becoming flesh and blood in Jesus.
That is why the wedding imagery of today’s readings is so beautiful and
powerful. Through the Hebrew Scriptures and in Christian theology, God is
“espoused” to God’s people. The image of the bride and bridegroom,
whether it speaks of the relationship between God and Israel or that of Jesus
and the Church is an image that is meant to speak directly to our hearts. We
see in the wedding image God’s loving commitment, the divine and the
human in a loving embrace.
Although I do not want to try to “explain” or “give meaning” to the terrible
devastation the people of Haiti have experienced on such an horrific scale, as
a person of faith, I too—like our deacon—am looking for some “sign”—like
the transformation of the water into wine—a “sign” of Jesus being at work in
the world. Where I find that “sign” is in contemplating the words of the
prophet Isaiah about the return of the exiles from Jerusalem to their land
which was considered “desolate” and “abandoned.” Is it just dreaming to
hear these words of consolation addressed to the people of Haiti who have
always known hardship and now know more than they could ever imagine?
“No more shall people call you ‘forsaken,’ or your land ‘desolate.’ But you
shall be called ‘my delight and your land ‘espoused.’ For the Lord delights
in you and makes your land his spouse. And as a bridegroom rejoices in his
bride so shall your God rejoice in you.”