When the wedding wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. 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 (Jn2:3-5).
The gospels seem to be full of these short interactions… sometimes more seeming to have the purpose of setting the stage for that which is to come – serving as the introduction – than to impart a teaching. The situation which has presented itself is one of embarrassment to the wedding hosts. Surely it would be embarrassing to invite many people to a wedding and then run out of wine. The mother of Jesus wished to ward off, save or rescue them from such embarrassment, and perhaps as well to keep the celebration alive… apparently wishing that Jesus would use his special gifts to solve the problem. Jesus’ response is very interesting. He addresses his mother as woman. Not a way, even in today’s age of coarseness, to address one’s mother. He is responding to her as someone whose thinking is stuck in the world of existence, not seeing or coming from the intent of the Father, the Source of all. He asks, How does this concern affect me? Jesus’ work, all sourced in intent, would certainly not be concerned with social customs, with upholding cultural ways, with using his gifts for keeping a party going. This is not his work. This is not the purpose of his gifts. Hence we hear the further response, My hour has not yet come. The hour, his hour would be the time of taking up and fulfilling the work to which he was called, the work for which he came into this world. One might conclude or surmise that his ultimate affirmative response to her request was not due to holding off embarrassment, but from the love for his mother and compassion for people – for lost souls.
Jesus tells us Follow me (Mt8:22). Follow his path… his path being led by the intent of the Father, the work for which he was sent, work of fulfilling the purpose for which he came to earth. We too have work, intentional work, our called work, the work of our heart, work we come to see and understand through prayerful questioning, the intuition of wholeness and reflective dialoguing, a complete opening of self to the seeing that comes… a seeing that calls for letting go of serving self, and answering “Yes” to the will of the Father. This seeing is on a path of moving towards wholeness… towards seeing ourselves as intended members in the whole of life, with intended work and roles in that regard. Hence, the seeing of our called work, the work of the heart, calls for our taking a life of the whole perspective and accessing the wisdom of intent through intuitive wholeness and the mind of essence. This is the disciplining of the mind called for, along with the opening of the heart. Through the disciplining of mind and opening of heart, we begin to see intent and intended ways of life… and our intended work and roles within life… a seeing of Thy will, not my will. Hence calling for choice, conscious choice on our part… choice to take up the work of our hour, our intentional purpose… and let go of being determined and led by cultural patterns that have little meaning as far as the eternal ongoingness of life. As we think about it, we readily see that running out of wine at a wedding is inconsequential to life, life of the whole.
Yet, there is something that is consequential, that which makes it possible to take up our work and roles in ways congruent with the intent of the Source… that something is love – the all-inclusive love of Christ.
With this happening, which falls in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, we see him indexing to, calling attention to his purpose – his reason for living on this earth… and responding from and through all-inclusive love. We too are called to follow the way (Jn14:6)… take up and live from our intentional purpose, not our preferred or desired goals, and become instruments of the all-inclusive love of Christ, making possible the forgiving open heart essential to taking up our work.
Reflecting on what is written here, we notice much is about self. The process of becoming poor in spirit – of letting go of self and self-centeredness – is an initiating step on the path of intent, a step that has imbedded within it the realization of our intended membership in community. Yet, at this time of now we are seeing and experiencing something that can be called the community self – communities of people with attachments to ideas and solutions, to ideologies that are incomplete and fragmented, that are exacerbating and feeding divisiveness. The individual self, becoming attached to and identified with these ideologies, joins in the divisiveness, divisiveness which leads to anger, meanness and ultimately, to hate. At this time of now, what is called for is community letting go of self, community becoming poor in spirit, community heart becoming forgiving and open… community becoming instrument for all-inclusive love entering and manifesting on this earth. One way we might say this is that “being a good person” is no longer enough; as community we must become instrument of all-inclusive love taking up the work of Thy will being done on this earth (Mt6:10)… work which at this time takes and sustains its direction with the mother’s command – Work for all my children in the world – and grounds itself in the work of bringing the world of our making into congruence with the world of intent.
Reflecting on this teaching of Christ, we see and experience an interchange between existence and essence, between the world of our making and the world of intent, between leading from cultural status and leading from intentional purpose; we see and realize we are being introduced to the work now before us; the community work now before us.
