(This homily was given on January 18, 1998 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read John 2: 1-11.)

"Mary, the problem-solver."

This homily is about Mary, the problem-solver. That should be a topic of great interest to everyone, since problems are a universal phenomenon. Now if, perchance, you’re life is somehow problem-free, then please, do the rest of us a favor--write a book! It will definitely be a best seller. Tell us how you’ve managed to do get rid of all your problems! We’d love to know!

I dare say: that’s a book that will never be written. Which is one reason why we should thank the Lord for the example of the Blessed Mother. Since problems are so prevalent, we need to know how to deal with them. And this is the lesson that Mary teaches us so well in the gospel story we just heard: this story of the miracle at the wedding feast of Cana. In this scene, Mary gives some very important insights as to how to deal successfully with the difficulties of life.

Looking at the text now—notice, first of all, how Mary faces the problem she encounters head-on. She recognizes that this newly married couple is in trouble. Now to us, in twentieth century North America, this might not seem like a big deal. We might say, "So what?--they were out of wine. Let them drink papaya juice or something else." Well, it was not that simple. Jewish wedding feasts back in the first century lasted for several days. And wine was expected for the celebration—to add to the joy of the occasion--not so that people could get drunk (drunkenness was considered a disgrace, as it should be). Consequently, if the wine had run out and it had become known, the bride and groom would have been publicly humiliated--because it would have been said that they failed to show proper hospitality to their guests. And in the Middle East, hospitality was extremely important. It was considered a sacred duty.

Mary, thankfully, saw what was happening, and she didn’t ignore what she saw! She didn’t deny the difficulty, nor did she run away from it. And that’s the approach we need to take with our problems. Now that probably sounds like common sense to most of us. But, as the old saying goes, "Common sense is not so common." For example, I’m sure we’ve all known people who have refused to go to the doctor in the midst of a heart attack or some other serious medical condition. They make light of the difficulty. They hope it will just ‘go away’ on its own. I’ve known many couples who have neglected the problems in their marriages for many years—hoping that things would somehow magically change for the better. All too often they’ve ended up in divorce court. By her conduct at Cana, Mary teaches us to face reality and admit the problem that’s present in our lives--whatever it is.

But recognizing the couple’s difficulty was only the first step. Mary then took action. She did what she could do, given the circumstances in which she found herself. In this regard, first of all, she spoke up. She was willing to open her mouth. The words of today’s first reading from Isaiah 62, with the proper modifications, could have been said by Mary: "For the sake of this couple I will not be silent, for my friends’ sake I will not be quiet." In doing this, our Blessed Mother showed that she was not afraid to stand alone. She made it clear that she was not afraid of rejection or ridicule. Let’s face it, some of her well-meaning friends might have said to her, "Mary, don’t get involved. It’s not your problem. Don’t stick your nose in someone else’s business." If there were such dissenting voices present that day, Mary, praise God, did not pay attention to them. She opened her mouth and took appropriate action. She approached her son and said, "They have no more wine." Then she went to the stewards and said, "Do whatever my Son tells you." After that, she disappeared into the background—something which is also significant. After doing what she believed God wanted her to do, she "let go." She didn’t try to force the issue. She did what she could, and then she put it completely into the hands of Jesus. That’s what we need to do in the midst of our problems. I met a woman this week in the hospital—a woman who is on dialysis and who has a number of other physical problems. She said she recently read a book in which the author used the expression, "Let go and let God." She told me that that one simple thought has really helped her. And so, after getting the best medical treatment available, she’s been trying to put her situation and her future completely into the hands of Jesus. I think the Blessed Mother would heartily approve of that approach, based on the way she conducted herself at Cana.

I would now like to apply everything I’ve said in this homily to one particular, pressing social problem: abortion. I do this, first of all, because our bishop has asked us to speak about the subject this weekend. Secondly, I address the issue because it will certainly be in the news a lot during the next few weeks. The 25^th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision occurs this Thursday. And, in the near future, Congress will once again be trying to override the President’s veto of the bill banning partial-birth abortions. So it definitely is a timely topic.

As I noted a few moments ago, at the wedding feast of Cana, Mary was willing to face reality. She didn’t ignore the problem that she saw. She faced it squarely and honestly. We’ve got to follow her example when it comes to the crime of abortion. We can’t pretend it doesn’t happen. We’ve got to be willing to face it for what it is: the murder of an innocent pre-born baby. Fr. Frank Pavone, president of Priests for Life, has often said that when people try to defend abortion in a discussion or debate, normally they make every effort to avoid the real issue. Rarely, if ever, are they willing to talk about what an abortion is. They will be more than happy to talk to you about laws, and rights, and the Constitution, and the relationship between a doctor and a patient, and 1,001 other things—but they totally ignore the act of abortion. That, they will refuse to discuss. This, by the way, has really become evident in the controversy over partial birth abortion. For example, when pro-life congressmen and congresswomen have simply tried to describe the procedure on the floor of the House or the Senate, they’ve been called all kinds of terrible names by their pro-abortion colleagues. But their point is: "Look, we’re debating whether or not this procedure should be legal. Shouldn’t we at least know what it’s about? What exactly is a partial birth abortion?"

But the flight from reality even goes beyond this. There are many people today, for example, who are unwilling to admit the fact that certain contraceptives also can cause abortions—like the IUD and the birth control pill. Yes, it’s true: the pill, when used for birth control purposes, can cause a spontaneous abortion. That’s because the pill does not always suppress ovulation. And when it doesn’t stop ovulation, an egg can be fertilized. But that fertilized egg will not be able to implant in the wall of the woman’s uterus, because the pill alters the lining of the uterus, making implantation impossible. I wonder how many women have had abortions in this way without even knowing it—all because their doctors haven’t told them the whole truth about the pill. You see, doctors also can be guilty of not facing reality on this issue.

Once we face the truth of the problem of abortion, then we need to do all that we can to help solve it—as Mary did all that she could to rectify the situation at Cana. In this regard, we can certainly all pray—daily—for a greater respect for human life. We also need to educate ourselves so that we can, as Scripture says, "speak the truth in love" on this subject. If we’re parents, then we can (and should) educate our children about abortion and other crimes against life. Because, believe me, if parents don’t educate their children in the truth, the media in this country will be more than happy to educate them in a host of untruths.

We can also promote respect for life with peaceful protesting in front of abortion mills. We can volunteer for an organization like Problem Pregnancy, which offers women alternatives to abortion. And even if we have personally had an abortion, we can use that mistake for good--by counseling other women against making the same error that we made. Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe" of the Roe v. Wade court case, has begun to do this publicly in the last year, since she changed her position and became pro-life.