”If you need a miracle, be a miracle.”

“The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen.” – G.K. Chesterton 

(Gospel Text: JN 2:1-11)

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,

and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

When the wine ran short,

the mother of Jesus said to him,

“They have no wine.”

And Jesus said to her,

“Woman, how does your concern affect me?

My hour has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servers,

“Do whatever he tells you.”

Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,

each holding twenty to thirty gallons.

Jesus told the them,

“Fill the jars with water.”

So they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them,

“Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.”

So they took it.

And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,

without knowing where it came from

— although the servers who had drawn the water knew —,

the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,

“Everyone serves good wine first,

and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;

but you have kept the good wine until now.”

Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee

and so revealed his glory,

and his disciples began to believe in him.

We're running out of wine.

With Mary, we turn to Jesus and say: "We have no more wine." We don't know what to say or do. Mary tells us: "Do whatever He tells you" (see Jn 2:3-5). Jesus wants to change our watered-down Christianity into the new wine of life in the Spirit, but we must obey Him by faith in order for that to happen. The Holy Spirit is "given to those who obey Him" (Acts 5:32).

As we begin to accept Jesus as the son of God and open up our hearts to him, the real miracle takes place within ourselves. By persevering in a committed Sacramental life (receiving the Eucharist once a week at Mass and going to monthly confession with a priest), as well as developing a daily prayer life (Praying the Rosary), we become another of God’s miracles!

The by-product of this choice of ours will allow God to breath over our chaos, transform our character, bring light into our darkness, and give us authentic peace and joy. Isn’t that what everyone wants in life? So what is the problem?

"Do whatever He tells you" (see Jn 2:3-5).

Live the Mass. Make it the center of your life. You will receive everything you need.

Be deprived "no more."

“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”

“Two classes of people make up the world: those who have found God, and those who are looking for Him - thirsting, hungering, seeking! And the great sinners came closer to Him than the proud intellectuals! Pride swells and inflates the ego; gross sinners are depressed, deflated and empty. They, therefore, have room for God. God prefers a loving sinner to a loveless 'saint'. Love can be trained; pride cannot. The man who thinks that he knows will rarely find truth; the man who knows he is a miserable, unhappy sinner, like the woman at the well, is closer to peace, joy and salvation than he knows.”  - Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

(Gospel Text: MK 2:13-17)

Jesus went out along the sea.

All the crowd came to him and he taught them.

As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus,

sitting at the customs post.

Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”

And he got up and followed Jesus.

While he was at table in his house,

many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples;

for there were many who followed him.

Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners

and tax collectors and said to his disciples,

“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus heard this and said to them,

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.

I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Could the Lord work with you as He did with Levi?

Would you respond in an instant as Levi did?

We live in an "instant" society. We microwave our food or pick it up at a drive-thru window, and expect instant communications to the whole world. We pop a pill for every difficulty. But, when the Lord wants an instant response from us, can we give it?

Don't keep the Lord waiting. 

“Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”

“You, in the West, have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness. They feel unloved and unwanted. These people are not hungry in the physical sense, but they are in another way. They know they need something more than money, yet they don't know what it is. What they are missing, really, is a living relationship with God.” – Mother Teresa

(Gospel Text: MK 2:1-12)

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,

it became known that he was at home.

Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,

not even around the door,

and he preached the word to them.

They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.

Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,

they opened up the roof above him.

After they had broken through,

they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,

“Child, your sins are forgiven.”

Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,

“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.

Who but God alone can forgive sins?”

Jesus immediately knew in his mind what

they were thinking to themselves,

so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?

Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,

‘Your sins are forgiven,’

or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’?

But that you may know

that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”

–he said to the paralytic,

“I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”

He rose, picked up his mat at once,

and went away in the sight of everyone.

They were all astounded

and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

Usually today's Gospel reading is entitled "The Paralyzed Man." It could very easily be entitled "The Paralyzed Men."

The man on the stretcher wasn't the only paralyzed person in the room. The scribes were spiritually paralyzed, a much more serious condition than physical paralysis. Because of it, the scribes wouldn't believe in Jesus. They even refused to rejoice in the paralytic's healing. Furthermore, the scribes were so paralyzed they could not recognize their paralysis.

In contrast, those who carried the paralytic on a stretcher, broke up the roof, and lowered him down were certainly not paralyzed but truly free (Mk 2:4). They didn't let themselves be paralyzed by fear of failure, rejection, or ridicule. They acted in faith (Mk 2:5), even if they might be embarrassed.

Of the two types of people described in today’s gospel passage, “the paralyzed scribe” and “the free stretcher-bearer”; Which one are you?

Why don’t you simply "Stand up"! Pick up your mat and go home" (Mk 2:5, 11).

There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth… not going all the way, and not starting

If not you, who? If not now, when?
— The Talmud

Scripture Text (Heb 3:7-14):

The Holy Spirit says:

Oh, that today you would hear his voice,

“Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion

in the day of testing in the desert,

where your ancestors tested and tried me

and saw my works for forty years.

Because of this I was provoked with that generation

and I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart,

and they do not know my ways.’

As I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”

Take care, brothers and sisters,

that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,

so as to forsake the living God.

Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,”

so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.

We have become partners of Christ

if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.

Here’s the thing:

It is so easy for us to delay becoming holier people by just saying that we will get better tomorrow. Think about the last time you tried to start a new diet or exercise program. I’m guessing you probably had a couple days when you said, “Well, today’s my last day of eating unhealthy food. I promise I will start the diet tomorrow.” This same continuous self-gratification philosophy is often applied to our spiritual lives. However, if we don’t start actually living holy lives today, what we are in effect doing whether we realize it or not, is turning our backs on God and all the grace that goes along with it.

God wants nothing more than to have you turn to him.

Unfortunately many of us irrationally resist listening and responding to God's voice fearing it will somehow thwart our happiness and fulfillment.

But Jesus' wish for us is that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be complete.