New Beginnings

Every day is a new beginning with new possibilities.

You might even say every second is a new beginning.

Life can change in a second, a happy turn or a sad turn.

An epiphany or a conversion (or a further conversion) can happen in an instant.

Even though it may have been building up over years.

Today we’re surrounded by examples and invitations to new beginnings and new possibilities.

These invitations, like the new beginnings, occur more than once; so they’re not completely new.

They’re cyclical, but they bring a newness and freshness each time they come around.

They can serve as reminders and rekindlers for our faith and our motivation.

We see some new beginnings in our recent scripture readings.

Last Sunday we had the Baptism of the Lord.

The start of Jesus’ public ministry.

Today we hear of Jesus’ first miracle—The beginning of his signs.

Compared to later miracles, this first one might seem like a modest start.

Changing water into wine isn’t as important as:

Curing lepers, cripples, the blind, the deaf, and the possessed.

Or raising the dead.

But it was very important to that wedding family at that moment.

They didn't ask; they wouldn't have known to ask.

But Mary was attentive to the family’s need.

And she knew that her son could do something about it.

Jesus hesitated, saying: My hour has not yet come.

But he went ahead at his mother’s urging—his mother’s invitation.

It was an important miracle to all of us, because it convinced his disciples to believe in him.

We have some new beginnings in our secular lives as well.

Our year is still new—just three weeks old.

And hopefully we still have some optimism left in us.

Today is the actual inauguration day for a new presidential term.

The ceremonial day is tomorrow, but the official inauguration is today.

Within the past few weeks we’ve had the start of a new congress.

May our new and renewed leaders be attentive to the needs of their people.

This is a busy week of new cycles and new beginnings and rekindlers.

Along with the inauguration we also celebrate Martin Luther King Day.

And Friday, we have the March for Life.

And the whole week is designated a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Many of us remember seeing Martin Luther King in person or on the TV news.

As he led the struggle against racial injustice.

Those who didn’t live through that era can still see and hear his recorded speeches.

And see the news videos of the sit-ins and the marches.

And the dogs, the fire hoses, the clubs, the guns and the bombed homes and churches.

Martin Luther King was certainly attentive to the needs of his people—the whole nation.

And their needs were great and the issues were of enormous spiritual and societal importance.

I remember the riots,

And the soldiers in the streets of Cincinnati where I was living when he was killed.

Here in Washington, rioters burned down H Street.

Just a few years later I started law school at Boston University.

On campus, they proudly displayed a plaque marking the building

Where Martin Luther King had earned his Doctor of Theology degree.

And with that training, and his spirit, and his character, he set off on his new beginning.

He brought our country, through years of struggle, to another new beginning.

He didn’t fight and win the battle alone.

But he was the key recognized political and spiritual leader of the movement.

Friday, we’ll have this year’s March for Life.

Another annual event in another struggle for human rights.

Another struggle for people in great need, and issues of enormous spiritual and societal importance.

Even if we’re attentive to such problems, none of us can solve them alone.

All we can do, in these great matters, is to make sure we do our own part.

Maybe our part is simply to pray. 

Maybe our part is to take some further action.

Maybe even to lead the way to new solutions.

We do give attention to the big societal issues and to the small personal issues.

But it's hard to know if we're really doing enough.

Is God calling us to focus on a particular issue?

Where should we be directing our energy and our talents?

What are our talents?

St Paul offers a nice list to consider in today’s second reading.

As deacon, I attend a lot of Masses.

And I get to listen to a lot of great homilies.

I've noticed that over the past couple weeks, Fr Begg has had a recurring message:

An invitation to pray.

This seems like a good time to jump on that bandwagon.

Let’s seize on this time of new beginnings.

Our hour has  come.

Let’s be more attentive to the needs of those around us—and to our own needs.

Let’s get to know more about God's plan for us, what he's calling us to do.

To do that, we need to talk with him and listen for his guidance.

And we don't have to start with some dramatic, extraordinary effort.

We can begin by reserving just 15 quiet minutes a day.

A brief regular time slot reserved for prayer—that is for talking to and listening to God.

If we’re already faithfully doing that, we might pray for guidance in stepping it up a notch.

Let that be our new beginning—

Starting today, a new life in closer personal communication with God.

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jn 2:1-11                                  Read this Scripture @usccb.org