3rd Epiphany 2021, I and Thou

 3^rd Epiphany

John 2:1-11
 
On the third day, a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
 
When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
 
And Jesus answered her, "What

Woloschina

shall be done by me and what by you, O Woman? [ or, "A power in common works between you and me, O Woman.] [or, "Something still weaves between you and me, O Woman."] The hour when I can work out of myself alone has not yet come."
 
Then his mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
 
There were six stone jars set up there for the Jewish custom of ceremonial washing, each containing twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with fresh water."
 
And they filled them to the brim. And he said, "Now draw some out and take it to the Master of the feast. And they brought it to him.
 
Now when the Master of the feast tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it came from—for only the servants who had drawn the water knew—he called the bridegroom aside and said to him, "Everyone serves the choice wine first, and when the guests have drunk, then the lesser; but you have saved the best until now."
 
This, the beginning of the signs of the spirit that Jesus performed among human beings, happened at Cana in Galilee and revealed the creating spiritual power that worked through Him. The disciples' hearts opened, the power of faith began to stir in them, and they began to trust in him.

3^rd Epiphany
John 2:1-11
January 24, 2021
 
“What shall be done by me and what by you, O Woman?…and the disciples’ hearts opened; the power of faith began to stir in them, and they began to trust in him.” John 2:4 and 2:11
 
This time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, much is dormant. But when the sun’s rays shine again more strongly, they will stimulate something, and nature will respond with green and growth and blossom. Mother Nature, we call her, and she is the mother who, together with the power of the sun, creates new life.
 
But besides Mother Nature and our own birth mothers,

we are related to another mother, the mother within. She is our own soul. Sometimes she too lies asleep, dormant. But when we awaken her, and she is pure and open to the spiritual sun, she also can bear a Son of Promise, just as Mary did at Christmas. In time our own soul mother and our soul’s Spirit-Son mature, and a delicate interweaving begins, a conversation, a working together. The soul mother’s attention expands. She notices and expresses another’s emptiness, another’s need. And the soul’s Spirit-Son knows what to do: He begins to shine, to radiate, and to stimulate a kind of greening in the hearts of those around Him.
 
The weaving between soul-mother and Spirit-Son is the first step toward creating a new life for humanity. The power weaving between mother and Son ripples outward on waves of light and begins to stir in human hearts.
 
He who sat as in the sun
Would have thee know
See: I am what am beginning
But thou art the tree.*
 
 
Rilke, “Annunciation” in The Book of Pictures, transl. by M. D. Herder Norton, p. 91.