Filled to the Brim with Football

Homily 397 | 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time | Year C

In today’s gospel, Jesus famously turns over 100 gallons of water into wine. This is the first miracle performed by Jesus and one of his most famous. But there’s a little detail that is often overlooked. When Jesus asks the servants to fill the water jars, we are told that they filled them “to the brim.”

The jars would have been much too large to move, so the must have filled them by going back and forth to a well or stream with buckets. The servants could have stopped when they thought the  jars were “full enough.” Yet think what would have happened if they only filled the jars halfway. There would have been less wine. The miracle would have been less because they only put in half the effort.

If you feel like you’re not “getting a lot out of Mass” your faith, maybe you need to ask if you are really filling your water jar to the brim. Are you giving it everything you’ve got? By way of example, today’s homily considers the effort we put into being a fan of our local football team, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Fans are crazy; that’s how they’re supposed to be. Think of all the crazy things we do to support our Chiefs. Do we have similar enthusiasm for God? It’s no coincidence that the miracle in the gospel takes place at a wedding. When two people are in love, they often do crazy things. In the first reading, God tells us that this is how he loves us, like a spouse. He is crazy in love with us. He is your biggest fan and would do anything to show his support. So if God is this crazy for us, what will we do for him?