All are called to meet the Lord as Bridegroom, Pope says

January 18, 2016

Reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading (Jn. 2:1-11), Pope Francis said during his January 17 Angelus address that “the miracle of Cana is not just about the bride and groom. Every human person is called to meet the Lord as the Bridegroom of his life.”

“The story of the wedding at Cana invites us to rediscover that Jesus does not come to us as a judge ready to condemn our sins, nor as a commander that requires us to blindly follow His orders; He appears as the Savior of humanity, as brother, as our big brother, Son of the Father: as the One who responds to the expectations and promises of joy that dwell in the heart of each of us,” the Pope told the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Pope Francis also said that “the large stone jars that Jesus filled with water to transform it into wine (v. 7) are a sign of the passage from the Old to the New Covenant: instead of water used for the purification ritual, we received the Blood of Jesus, poured in a sacramental way in the Eucharist and in a bloody way in the Passion and the Cross.”

He concluded:

May the Virgin Mary, model of meditation on the words and gestures of the Lord, help us to rediscover faith with the beauty and richness of the Eucharist and the other sacraments, which makes present ever more the faithful love of God for us. So let us fall more and more in love with the Lord Jesus, our Spouse, and meet Him with lamps lit up with our joyous faith, and become ever more His witnesses in the world.

 

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Further information:

• Angelus Domini 2016.01.17 (Vatican YouTube)
• Le parole del Papa alla recita dell’Angelus, 17.01.2016 (Holy See Press Office)
• ANGELUS ADDRESS Jan. 17: On Accepting Miracles (Zenit)