A New Song for A New Covenant

Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

The responsorial psalm for today begins with a familiar verse that is incorporated into many of the psalms: “Sing to the Lord a new song.” Though the word “new” appears only in the first reading and in the responsorial, it is clear that the Scriptures for today are calling us all to something new. God summons us to something new, gives us a new name, provides us with new experiences, launches us into new ministries, and calls us to sing a new song of praise.

The reading from the prophet Isaiah once again comes from Third Isaiah or Trito Isaiah. This is the post-exilic Isaiah whose oracles are proclaimed to the recently released children of Israel from the bondage of Assyria. Using very poetic and very beautiful language, the prophet employs a series of comparisons and contrasts that open up the miracle of God’s enduring love for all of creation. Using words that connote the intimacy of marriage, God speaks to Israel and proclaims that she will be known by a new name - the time of abandonment and barrenness are over and now Israel will be known as beloved and espoused.

The Gospel of St. John picks up this theme of newness by revealing Jesus as inaugurating the New Covenant by replacing Jewish ritual, Jewish institutions, Jewish festivals and Jewish law. The prologue and the first chapter of the Gospel introduce this theme. Today we read from the second chapter which opens with the story of the wedding feast of Cana. At every such gathering in Jewish culture, six stone jars filled with water are made available so that the guests may wash their hands as well as the vessels and dishes from the feast. Such ritual ceremonial washings are mandated by Jewish law. However, Jesus has the attendants fill these jars with water and then tells them to serve it to the headwaiter who exclaims in wonder that the bridegroom has done something new, something unheard of. He has saved the best for last.

Changing water into wine can only be understood as a sign pointing to a new reality. As the Gospel continues, we will find seven such signs, each of them pointing to a new reality, a new experience of life. Jesus will give us a new commandment, will tell us that a new temple will replace the old one, will raise a man who was dead and buried to a new life, will open the eyes of a man born blind to a new understanding of God’s Messiah, and will celebrate a new Passover that will forever replace the old observance.

St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians writes of the many and various gifts, ministries and workings of the Holy Spirit within the community. All the gifts, all the ministries and all the great works come directly through the Holy Spirit and are dispensed for the enrichment of the community, not for the aggrandizement of the individual. Because the Solemnity of Pentecost occupies a single day on our liturgical calendar, we may be inclined to think of Pentecost as the only season of the Holy Spirit, but in reality, the newness of God comes to us through the Spirit regardless of the season of the year. During Advent we remembered the overshadowing of the Virgin by the Spirit. At the end of the Christmas Season we saw that the Spirit was present at the baptism of Jesus. Now we see that the new community brought to birth by God manifests the presence of the Spirit within it through various gifts, ministries and works.

All this newness comes from God. As with the primordial creation, God creates out of chaos – God creates a new people out of one that was forsaken; creates a new land out of desolation, creates a new Spirit-filled community. It is in the light of this newness that we come to understand the person of Jesus. Through Mary, God called Jesus out into ministry, a ministry that would bring the fruits of the eschatological age of fulfillment to the whole world. The transformation of the world will be the ultimate new creation of God. The new wine which Jesus provides symbolizes the intoxicating nature of the newness he brings. Christmas was the season during which we beheld the inbreaking of God’s newness. During Ordinary Time we see how the newness can transform the world. Our new song calls the entire world to worship God and to praise God’s name. Our lives flesh out that song by works of faithful love and kindness.