I have never exactly been a free spirit, but there have  certainly been times in my life when I had fewer responsibilities and was less tied down than I am nowadays. Just a few months before I entered seminary, a college friend called and asked me if I wanted to go to Turkey for Easter, and a few minutes later I had bought a plane ticket and was ready to go. Spending a week in a place so steeped in the early history of Christianity was a truly awesome experience because I had the opportunity to see the difference in what is emphasized in Eastern as opposed to Western Christianity. It is almost impossible to find a Church in Constantinople that does not depict Our Lord descending into the depths and reclaiming the souls of Adam and Eve from the tomb, and it is a sight to behold.

These Anastasis icons point to an important element  of what we believe as Christians: that Jesus entered into the human condition to “recapitulate” what had gone wrong when humanity had fallen into sin and broken our relationship with God. Everything that  God desired for us was lost, but instead of writing us off as hopeless, He forged a plan to redeem us and undo the damage, all the way back to our first ancestors. In keeping with this theme, there are events and stories in the Gospel that expressly hearken back to man’s fall from Grace to more clearly demonstrate the Jesus is remaking us.

Today’s Gospel is one such example, as St. John tells the story of the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, but it’s also a total reversal of the Garden of Eden. In the Garden, Adam is prompted by Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, and so undoes the perfect unity between God and man, man and woman, man and nature, and man and himself. At the Wedding at Cana, Jesus (the new Adam) is prompted by Mary (the new Eve, mother of all the living) to begin His public ministry which will in turn restore the original unity for which we were created. Jesus seems to gently protest, perhaps thinking about the Will of the Father and the Cross that awaits Him. Ultimately, He chooses to begin His ministry with a sign of wonder, drawing disciples to Himself and beginning the work of spreading the Gospel.
 
At the beginning of this new year, there are two important lessons to be absorbed from this Gospel narrative. First, we should take solace in the fact that Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death, and we no longer must live as slaves to sin, but instead can put on the New Man that is Christ. By the  power of Christ that flows through the  sacraments, we can be sanctified and purified from our bad habits and brokenness, and that really is Good News. Second, we should renew our trust in the fact that Mary, now as then, serves as a pathway to her Son Jesus. In 2022, I pray that each of us draws near to the Blessed Mother so that we can hear her whisper to us the same words she used all those years ago, “Do whatever He tells you.”