One interesting thing about gifts we give and receive- they are wrapped. A few weeks ago from St. Luke we hear: ”And Mary...wrapped the baby Jesus in swaddling clothes.'' These are precious words. They can be felt best by a mother who has felt what Mary felt. But now we all know there is more wrapped up in those swaddling clothes than just a little baby. Underneath that wrapping is a precious gift to humanity.
In 1992, there was an experiment done in a university where 45 students were asked to evaluate some products and in exchange they would receive a free gift. Little did they know that the purpose of the experiment was to evaluate the gift rather than product. So when they gave them the free gift, half of them received the gift wrapped in blue and white paper with a matching ribbon and bow. The others received the same gift in a plastic bag. Those test subjects who received the gift wrapped gave it a higher overall approval than those who received it in a plastic bag. So that’s why we wrap the gift
Today in the gospel we find Mary finally unwrapping that precious gift for all of us. At a wedding in Cana, when the wine ran out, Mary tells Jesus: “They have no more wine.” Jesus answers with: “What concern is that to you and to me?” But Mary simply addresses the servants with a smile: “Do whatever Jesus tells you.” And we have the first miracle - water turns into wine.
Once there was this priest who was a wine expert. So during the Christmas season, he got so used to parishioners giving him wine wrapped in wine boxes. He was so good that he could tell what kind of wine or spirit was inside the wrapped wine box just by its weight. Until there was this little child who gave him a wrapped gift box which he could not guess. As he held it up he found it leaking. He touched a drop with his finger and tasted it. Hmmm, is it champagne? No. He touched another drop with his finger and guessed. Is it brandy? No. Is it whiskey? No. Ok I give up what is it? It’s a puppy?
All of us are like gifts all wrapped up. Somehow, somewhere, someday that gift has to be unwrapped to free that which is trapped inside. In life we should unwrap the gifts God has given us, our talents, our resources, and share it with others.
Today’s second reading tells us: “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Sprit; there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. “
If God has given you something, you have the duty to unwrap it and use it and share it. Hans Urs von Balthasar so nicely puts it: “What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.”
A song - poem says its too beautifully:
Persons are gifts of God to me.
That come all wrapped so differently.
Some so loosely, others so tightly;
But remember that wrappings are not the gifts.
We are all persons, we are all gifts.
So let's make a grand exchange of gifts.
Today’s responsorial psalm invites us: “Declare the marvellous gifts of the Lord to all the peoples.”
Ok I’ll unwrap the final gift of Jesus ministry: If today you hear he turns the water into wine, later he will turn the wine into blood- the Eucharist.