Whoever enters a Church must enter with reverence because of the Lord’s presence.  The Church is where the holy sacrifice of the Mass is offered, where the Lord gifts us with his presence.  He invites us into his presence so that he can be present in us, and, with him in us, he is present to the world.  The Gospel story of the miracle in Cana teaches us that the presence of Jesus makes a difference in our lives so that we too can make a positive difference by our presence in the world. 

He was conceived in the womb of Mary, and his presence made a difference in his mother.  “All generations will call me blessed,” she would say after she conceived Jesus.  She received the word of God in her heart when she said to the angel, “I am the handmaid of the Lord.  Let it be done to me according to your word.”  She received the word of God in her heart, and the Son of God was conceived in her womb. 

Once while he was preaching, a woman in the crowd was so touched that she raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you.” And we repeat the words of that woman when we say the Hail Mary: “Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.” The womb in which the Son of God was conceived is blessed. 

The presence of the Son of God who is God in the womb of Mary blessed that womb because she had received the word of God in her heart.  And so, when that woman in the crowd said “Blessed is the fruit that bore you,” Jesus said to the woman, “More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep.”  When we keep the word of God, when the word of God is present within us, when we welcome the word of God into our hearts, we are blessed.

            The presence of Jesus as an infant in the manger made a difference in the manger.  The manger, a habitation of animals, became the unexpected point of arrival of the Son of God when he came into the world to us as man.  That manger would attract shepherds and wise men from the east.

The presence of Jesus in the waters of baptism made a difference in the waters.  His presence in the waters of baptism cleansed those waters so that when we too are baptized in the waters of baptism we will be cleansed.  His presence in the waters of baptism transformed the waters into the fountain of eternal life.

The presence of Jesus at the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee made a big difference.  He prevented the wedding party from ending abruptly.  In Psalm 104:15, it is written that “God gave wine to cheer people’s hearts.”   God in Jesus cheered the hearts of the wedding party by turning water into wine for them.

The Book of Proverbs says of those who are blessed: “your barns will be filled with corn, your vats overflowing with new wine.”

The Book of Sirach says: “Wine gives life if drunk in moderation.  What is life worth without wine?” (Sirach 31:27).

God spoke to the nation of Israel through the prophet Isaiah, saying: “Come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come!  Buy and eat; come, buy wine and milt without money, free.”  The prophet Isaiah would describe abundance of wine as sign of the presence of the Messiah

“They have no wine,” said the mother of Jesus.  But there was something more than wine that they did not have.  Their running out of wine is of deeper significance. And the significance is to be grasped by looking at the relationship between God and his people Israel,

The relationship between the people of Israel and God is often presented in the Hebrew Scriptures as the relationship between a groom and his bride.  God wedded Israel when he made a covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai.  But wedding feast between God and Israel ran out wine because Israel ran out of the wine of fidelity to the covenant.  Wine makes human beings cheerful when wine is not abused by drunkenness.  “They have no wine” means their relationship with God no longer gave cause for cheer.  It had gone stale. 

When the Gospel according to John tells us about Jesus turning water into wine at that wedding feast, it teaches us that Jesus was restoring the relationship between God and Israel by his presence which makes a difference in our lives.  He brings joy into our own lives too if we would invite him to the wedding feast of our life.  The presence of Jesus in our life sanctifies and strengthens us.

The holy sacrifice of the Mass is the continued presence of Jesus in our midst.  Jesus is with us at Mass as he was at the wedding feast in Cana.  The holy Mass is the wedding feast of Jesus the Lamb of God.  At Cana, they offered him water, and he turned the water into wine.  At Mass, we offer earthly realities of bread and wine, and we receive them back from God, no longer as bread and wine, but as body and blood of Jesus.  At Mass, Jesus is present in the bread, and present in the wine because, at Mass, while we offer earthly gifts to our God, he gives us heavenly gifts in return. And when we receive this heavenly gifts of the body and blood of Christ into our lives, his presence in our souls is like his presence at Cana in Galilee. 

The presence of Jesus is in all who receive the Eucharist in the right disposition, and that presence makes a difference.  His presence makes us different in a good way. For there is difference and there is difference.  The cost of food items has changed in recent times, not for the good but for worse.  There is difference that represents change for the worse.  That is corruption.  That is degeneration.  Corruption in society is absence of moral values.  Absence of moral values represent change but not change for the better.  There is difference that represents change for the better.  That is the difference that the presence of Jesus brings about in us.  When Jesus is present in us, we change from persons who love what ought to be hated to persons who love what ought to be loved.

Now, if, at Mass, we receive Jesus into our hearts by receiving his word, and by receiving his body, that will make a big positive difference in us.  That is when we begin to love what ought to be loved, and that is when those who encounter us will see in us persons who are undergoing change for the better.  With the change that the presence of Jesus makes in us, we too become persons whose presence in the world changes the world for the better.  The Christian must be agent of positive change, not one who joins the bandwagon of corruption, the bandwagon of sinfulness.

Jesus transforms us with his teaching and with the grace of the sacrament so that we too can transform the world, beginning in our country Nigeria, in towns where we live.  At the end of Mass, Christ Jesus, in the words of the priest, says to us: “Go, the Mass is ended.”  Those words sound like the words of Jesus to his disciples at the end of the Gospel when he said: “Go out to the whole world, and proclaim the Gospel.”  Or, “Go, make disciples of all nations.”

“Go, the Mass is ended.” Those words we hear at the end of every Mass echo those words of our Lord.  Those words give us a mandate.  And the mandate is this: go and bear witness to the Gospel, the good news you received at Mass.  Go and tell the world about the Jesus who is now present in you because you have received him in his word and in the sacrament of holy Eucharist.

We may complain about all that goes wrong in our world.  We may curse the darkness.  But cursing the darkness alone will not bring light.  We must not just curse the darkness, we must light a candle.  We must be the light of the world making a difference in the world as Jesus made a difference at the wedding feast of Cana.

His presence in us is our strength.  His presence gives us courage to live for what is true, what is right, what is noble.  The presence of Jesus within us gives us the grace to change and to become agents of positive change.  And that is our mission in this world.  That is our Christian mission.

Father Anthony Akinwale, OP