The extravagance of God's love...

A huge thank you to Fr Denis Marmion who was covering today's masses at Holy Family in the absence of Fr Simon. It was a familiar enough gospel reading today - the wedding feast at Cana. I had never thought about it before until Fr Denis did the maths for us today - 6 jars each holding 20-30 gallons - that is between 120 and 180 gallons. That is a lot of wine. You would be reasonable in expecting a fair old discount at Bargain Booze for that amount. Now I reckon, by the time the hosts had run out of wine, a copious amount would have already been consumed. Fr Denis explained that in those times and at that place, the whole village would have been invited to the wedding, perhaps a couple of thousand people or more - but surely the hosts would have estimated with those numbers in mind? 120 gallons still seems an awful lot of wine to me.

But then this sets something of a precedent. Let's consider the story in Luke 5 of the calling of the first 4 disciples. Simon and the other fishermen had been out through the night, fishing, but to no avail. Jesus asked them to put out their nets once more. They did so, perhaps considering it against their better judgement. However, when they pulled them in again the nets were bursting, so huge was the haul of fish.

Think again of the feeding of the five thousand. From a couple of fish and five loaves, five thousand people ate their fill and there were twelve baskets filled with the leftovers. Thank goodness they didn't have a McDonald's happy meal to work with! But is this not ever so slightly over the top? Would it not be enough to have one jar of wine, a reasonable haul of fish or just enough food for everyone? Is that not impressive enough in itself? Not when you have a God whose grace is lavish, extravagant and nothing short of outrageous as in the case of the one true God. This should be an encouragement to us to be lavish in our own generosity. Jesus tells us:

"Be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and there will be gifts for you; a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap; because the standard you use will be the standard used for you." (Luke 6:36-38)

It's not a new message, but it is one we could all do with being reminded of, from time to time.

Have a good week.