This week our Gospel is the famous Wedding Feast at Cana — and something horrendous has happened at this wedding party:

The wine has run out.

The first person to notice is, of course, the Blessed Mother. 

She turns to her son Jesus and says to him: “They have no wine.”  

At first, he doesn’t seem very interested in doing anything about it. He says: “How does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” — but Mary insists, and her motherly persuasion finally conquers him apparently, because she tells the servants standing nearby: 

“Do whatever he tells you.”

And then he tells them to do something …TOTALLY CRAZY.

He tells them to go and get approximately 180 GALLONS of water…

That’s completely crazy.

What must have been going through their heads in that moment! But thankfully — they listened to Mary’s instructions: “Do whatever he tells you.”

They did it. They got close to 200 gallons of water.

But then things got even crazier.

Because Jesus then tells them to draw some out — and bring it to the headwaiter so he can taste it.

How insane that must have seemed to them!

It was WATER… not wine!

And of course we all know the story — When the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from, he said, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

This was Jesus’ first miracle.

And it only happened because the servants were willing to do whatever Jesus told them to do, even if it seemed REALLY crazy.

And this is the reality for our lives today as well:

We’re supposed to do whatever Jesus tells us to do.

And sometimes what Jesus tells us to do will seem kind of crazy — he will tell us to do things that are totally beyond our natural capacity and are well outside our comfort zones.

We might object. We might think to ourselves: “I CAN’T DO THAT, JESUS… THAT’S CRAZY. THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE. I CAN’T TURN WATER INTO WINE…”

And more often than not, Jesus’ response is something like this:

“Exactly. That’s the point. You can’t do any of this by your own power. You need My supernatural help. You need to be equipped and empowered with supernatural gifts.”

This is where our second reading this weekend comes in. Because there, St. Paul teaches us about what the New Testament refers to as “charisms” — or “spiritual gifts.”

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts,” St Paul says, “but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.”

Remember last week we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord — and there was a great manifestation of the Spirit! He came down on Jesus in the form of a dove! — and we talked about how the same Holy Spirit that descended upon and anointed Jesus at HIS baptism…descended upon and anointed us at our baptism.

When that happened — When we were baptized — each one of us was given certain charisms… spiritual gifts… for the benefit of the entire Church.

But let’s define terms. What exactly is a charism, you may ask?

Well, the word “charism” comes from the Greek word, “charis,” which means grace. And “grace” of course is the free gift of God.

A charism is a free gift from the Lord that is given to a person for the benefit of the entire Church. 

When we speak about charisms, we don’t mean natural talents. We don’t mean things that we are automatically good at or that we enjoy doing.

Charisms are the God-given equipment that enables the Church to accomplish her mission… to go out and do the work of the Church.

A really good image for this is the image of a sailboat. We can think of the Holy Spirit as the wind. This is very scriptural, right? Jesus said, the wind blows where it wills… So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is that breath of God… that wind.

But in order for the boat to actually go anywhere, it needs sails. It needs those structures that can actually catch the wind, so to speak. 

This is what the charisms are. God gives us particular gifts… He gives us sails, if you will, by which we are then able to receive and work with…partner with… the power of the Holy Spirit’s wind.

At my last parish, a quote by Saint Bede was written right over the exit of the church: “Unfurl the sails and let God steer us where He will.”

Unfurl the sails…St Bede tells us… and DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU!

Ok.

So what kinds of gifts are there anyways? What kinds of “sails” might the Lord put onto our sailboats?

Well Sacred Scripture lists off several in Paul’s letters to the Romans and to the Ephesians, and St Peter provides a handful more in his first letter. The classic text, however, is what we heard in our second reading from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, where he names the following spiritual gifts:

“To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom;

to another, knowledge;

to another, faith;

to another, gifts of healing;

mighty deeds;

prophecy;

discernment of spirits;

varieties of tongues;

interpretation of tongues.

…But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.”

That last part is key! The Spirit distributes these supernatural gifts — these charisms — as He wishes.

We can’t do anything to earn them. We can’t produce them. It’s not about being holy enough, or special enough, or good enough…

They are pure gifts.

Vatican II says that “the Holy Spirit distributes special graces among the faithful of every state of life, assigning his gifts to each as he chooses. By means of these special gifts, he equips them and makes them eager for various activities and responsibilities that benefit the Church in its renewal… These charisms, the simpler and more widespread, as well as the most outstanding, should be accepted with a sense of gratitude and consolation, since in a very special way, they answer and serve the needs of the Church.”

That last bit is huge — the Charisms answer and serve the needs of the Church!

What a great tragedy it is, then, that so many Catholics today don’t even realize that they have these gifts!

A lot of Catholics don’t know that they’ve been supernaturally equipped with exactly what we need as a Church today — to evangelize, to serve God, to love our neighbors…

No matter who you are — no matter how small or insignificant you might think you are in the Church: You have a special gift — a special charism.

You might even have multiple charisms that God wants you to have for a specific purpose in the life of the Church.

But in order to activate these amazing gifts — in order for them to bear fruit — we need to go back to what Mary said in our gospel: 

Do whatever He tells you.”

We need to be willing to do whatever He tells us to do.

Jesus will tell us to do things if we’re listening!

Jesus might tell you to pray for someone’s healing out loud in front of them.

Jesus might tell you to encourage someone with a specific Scripture passage or a word that you receive from God.

Jesus might tell you to take a risk and volunteer for a brand new ministry

Jesus might tell you to think about the priesthood

He might tell you to consider visiting a convent.

Sometimes, Jesus tells you to evangelize your Uber driver.

I was recently watching a talk by Catholic speaker and writer, Jackie Angel, and she shared a story about how she was taking an Uber home from the airport, and the driver struck up a conversation with her. He brought up the fact (for whatever reason) that he didn’t like their governor because he did not believe in a woman’s right to choose.

And at that point, Jackie said that she had a choice to make — She only had 5 minutes in the car with this guy — Was the Lord telling her to respond and engage him?

Apparently the Holy Spirit DID prompt her to go for it. And so she said:

“You know, I believe in a woman’s right to choose as well — but I guess the question we have to ask is: When does her choice begin? Does it begin when she is born? Or does it begin when she’s in the womb? When does a woman’s right to choose begin?”

And the Uber driver got real quiet and finally replied: “I’ve never thought about that before!”

Jackie then proceeded to share: “You know, I’ve had multiple babies in my womb, and I’ve seen a heartbeat at 5 weeks. Did you know that 8 out of 10 women say that if they saw a heartbeat on an ultrasound, they would not abort their baby.”

And the Uber driver just said: “I’ve never thought about that either!”

She went on: “You’ve got a good heart. And I’m glad you’re so compassionate… I’m glad you want what’s best for the woman — I do too. I want what’s best for the woman AND the child. But if you have a crisis pregnancy — you eliminate the crisis, not the pregnancy.”

When he dropped her off in front of her house, he said: “If other people heard this stuff, they might think differently.”

She told him she’d pray for him, and he said he would pray for her as well,  and then he drove off.

This was all within a five minute drive. 

The Holy Spirit was working. And Jackie Angel’s sails were catching the wind! Jesus told her to talk to this Uber driver with love — meeting him where he was at. And she did. And because the Holy Spirit had empowered her with certain charisms — perhaps of teaching, and persuasion, and compassionate presence — this man was willing to listen to her.

And guess what? — He wants to do stuff like that in YOUR life as well. In both ordinary AND extraordinary circumstances.

The question we gotta ask, though, is:

Are we open to it? 

Are we brave enough to take those risks?

Do we trust Jesus enough to do whatever He tells us? To actually use the gifts we’ve been given… FOR HIS GLORY?

Because that’s where really good stuff happens.

That’s where conversions happen.

It’s like at the end of our Gospel — “and his disciples began to believe in him” we hear… after this revelation of God’s glory and power! After the water had become wine…

People will start to believe in Jesus when His presence and love is demonstrated more and more through us…

So let’s ask the Holy Spirit to pour out all those charisms and gifts onto His Church… Let’s ask Him to reawaken and stir up the gifts that He’s already given us — Let’s open up our sails, and be willing to catch that powerful wind of the Spirit, that He may blow wherever He will.