16 January 2022 John 2:1-11
Sunday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
SPIRITUAL EMPTINESS
Nearby stood six empty stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons (John2:6).
Before conversion St. Augustine passed through an early years of time of spiritual emptiness that was like an empty jar without wine. In spite of the good warnings of his mother, as a youth Augustine lived a hedonistic lifestyle for a time and became a Manichaean which denied the omnipotence of God. Spiritual emptiness of Augustine further extended when he began a relationship with a young woman in Carthage even while Monica his mother warned him of the sin of fornication (sex outside marriage). But Augustine persisted in the relationship for over fifteen years. But years of tireless prayers and sacrifices by St. Monica for her son Augustine whose heart/interior life without God, was like filling an empty jar (a heart without God) which finally God finally turned into ‘choice wine’ who lately became a priest, a bishop, a saint and Doctor of the Church.
In salvific projects distribution of jobs is very clear. The work of transformation is God’s. The servants who fill the jars represent all of us who are supposed to be at the service of God, and therefore our duty is ‘filling jars’. Interior conversion is God’s work.
It is our faith that prompts us to do humble services, trusting that God will use our efforts for the Kingdom, although we might not see the changes happening.
There are so many people amidst us who are like empty jars namely sinners, alcohol-drug addicts, murders, criminals etc. Filling their hearts with the love and mercy of God is transformative. Amen.