Friday, January 19 : Saint Maximus of Turin

By changing the jars filled with water into wine our Lord did two things : he provided drink to the wedding guests and he showed that, through baptism, people were going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Lord himself declared this elsewhere when he said: “New wine into fresh wineskins!” (Mt 9:17). The fresh wineskins stand, in fact, for baptismal purity, the wine of the Holy Spirit’s grace. Catechumens, pay particular attention to me. Your minds, which are ignorant as yet of the Trinity, are like water that is cold. They must be warmed, like wine, with the heat of the sacrament of baptism so as to transform a liquid that is poor and valueless into rich and precious grace. Like wine, let us acquire a good taste and sweet aroma, then we shall be able to say together with the apostle Paul: “We are indeed the good aroma of Christ for God” (2Cor 2:15). Before baptism the catechumen resembles still water, cold and colorless…, useless, unable to restore strength. If kept too long water deteriorates, stagnates, turns foul… The Lord said: “No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born again of water and the Spirit” (Jn 3:5). The baptized faithful are like wine that is strong and red. Every created thing deteriorates with time, wine alone improves as it ages. Daily it loses its sharpness and acquires a bouquet full of mellowness, with a deep flavour. Christians, too, as time passes, lose the sharpness of their sinful life and acquire the wisdom and goodness of the divine Trinity.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team