Sunday, February 27 : Saint Maximus of Turin

It is written that our Lord went to the wedding feast to which he had been invited. So the Son of God went to that wedding feast to sanctify by his presence the marriage he had already instituted. He went to a wedding of the old law to choose a bride for himself among the pagans, who would remain for ever a virgin. He, who was not born of human wedlock, went to the wedding. He went there, not to participate in a joyful feast, but to make himself known by means of a truly wonderful miracle. He went there, not to drink wine but to give it. For as soon as the guests lacked wine blessed Mary said to him: “They have no wine”. Jesus, seemingly annoyed, answered her: “Woman, what do you want of me?”… By responding that: “My hour has not yet come” he was surely announcing the glorious hour of his Passion, or else the wine shed for the salvation and life of all. Mary asked for a temporal favor whereas Christ was preparing an eternal joy. However, our good Lord did not hold back from granting small things while awaiting the coming of the great. Blessed Mary, because she was truly the mother of the Lord, saw in her mind what was about to take place and knew beforehand the Lord’s intention. That is why she carefully warned the servants in these words: “Do whatever he tells you”. His holy mother most certainly knew that her son and Lord’s words of reproach did not contain the feelings of an angered man but a mystery of compassion… And now, see!, suddenly those waters began to gain strength, to take on color, to shed a good odor, to acquire taste and, at the same time, to completely change their nature. And this transformation of water into another substance testified to the presence of the Creator, for no one apart from the one who created water out of nothing could have transformed it into something else.

maronite readings – rosary,team