I've made a few New Year's resolutions over the years. I've only kept one, though.
A few years ago, I decided I wanted to make a commitment to eating real food. I was reading the list of ingredients on a frozen dinner, and I couldn't even pronounce any of them. They were all chemicals of some sort. I decided then and there that this could not be a good thing.
So I decided to try and eat things that grew in the ground, walked on the earth, flew in the sky, or swam in the sea. For the most part, I have kept this resolution. To this day I do the best I can to avoid processed foods, and eat things that are not manufactured by the metric ton.
This time of year we are full of hope. For some reason, when the calendar turns, we feel we have a clean slate. Budgets may be fresh at work. School starts anew. Many of us had a break from work.
Now is the time, we're told, to do those things that we know are good for us, but that we for some reason avoid. This is when gym memberships flourish, diet books fly off the shelves, and exercise equipment is purchased with great optimism. We hope for some kind of physical and spiritual renewal.
In today's Gospel reading from John, Jesus performs the first of his "signs": He comes to the aid of a distraught wedding host who has run out of wine. Jesus responds by turning over 100 gallons of water into wine. This "sign" is about more than just a kind of supernatural magic trick. It is about Jesus' power and desire to transform our lives. He turns something ordinary into something extraordinary. He turns a situation of want into a situation of plenty.
The miracle Jesus performs at Cana is a sign of the role that he can play in our lives, in our communities, and in our world.
While we may wish to look better, eat better and work smarter in the New Year, it might be wise to look a little more deeply into our lives for a more satisfying form of renewal. The message of today's Gospel is that Jesus stands ready to transform our ordinary lives into extraordinary ones --- from plain water to rich wine.
But this is not something we can accomplish by will power or by promises to ourselves. We must avail ourselves of his grace and power. Jesus, as usual, looks beyond the more external "needs" we experience and the changes we desire, and offers us something richer and longer lasting --- conversion.
As we begin a New Year, and come out of the hectic holiday season, it would serve us well to reflect on today's reading and examine our lives in its light. In what ways do we accept the ordinary? In what ways do we strive and pray to live lives that are extraordinary --- lives that surprise ourselves, others and the world?
Bill Peatman writes from Napa.
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