OMPH and Our Lady of Cana

By Father John Kingsbury, C.Ss.R. |

Exodus 19:3-8a; John 2:1-11 |

I was asked to do a homily on the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help through the eyes of the Scripture passage about Our Lady at Cana. For this reflection I will focus specifically on the right hand of Mary that is rather central in the icon—the hand that’s facing the infant Jesus.

Throughout this reflection I hope you will not be too distracted by the tears coming from Brother Dan Korn, C.Ss.R., who will be reacting to my misunderstandings of the basic principles of iconography that he has been trying to teach us.

As consecrated religious, people often approach us with needs they would like us to pray for. This gives us a wonderful opportunity to invite them to consider asking for Mary’s intercession under the title of OMPH.

Our first task will be to point out Mary’s right hand, a hand that is open and facing the Christ child. We invite them to place their petition in Mary’s hand to bring to Jesus.

In the Cana story Mary brings a petition to Jesus: “They have no wine.” I am reminded of what Brother Dan spoke about at our first conference.

He said when we approach an icon we must avoid endless chatter. Our prayer must be simple and direct.

“They have no wine.”

Mary does not elaborate or even point out the answer. She doesn’t talk about how embarrassed the married couple must be nor even mention the fact that Jesus may be part of the cause because He showed up with a large number of His disciples.

People will approach us with a variety of petitions . . .

“My children don’t practice the faith” is all they need to say. They do not need to get into the fact that they were brought up in the faith, made First Holy Communion, said prayers at meals as a family, etc.

“My spouse seems distant lately” is all they need to say. They do not need to get into the fact that their spouse doesn’t seems to listen and to give endless examples.

“Someone has a serious health issue” is all they need to say. They do not need to get into the facts about the health issue, how many symptoms the person has, etc.

Even as religious we will ask one another for prayers.

“We have few vocations” is all we need to say. We do not need to get into consumerism, individualism, etc.

Our next task is to remind people that a relationship with our Lord does not go only in one direction—meaning we only present our needs. Mary’s right hand is also pointing to Jesus, and when taken in light of the Cana story, we hear the words: “Do whatever He tells you.”

Here we discuss with people what it is to follow Our Lord totally. This is a topic we are very familiar with as religious because it was the very issue we focused on at the beginning of our formation years.

During these early years we contemplated the call of giving ourselves totally to God and said yes! Through this discernment process we have come to know that this is not a unique issue for us because of our vows but is an issue everyone needs to face because of his or her baptism.

As people become more willing to listen and desire to follow more fully in the ways of the Lord, they will wonder whether Jesus will ask difficult things of them.

For this answer we can point out what was said to the servants in the Cana story. Jesus says to them, “Fill the jars with water.” A very ordinary activity. The servants knew immediately where to get water and where to get containers to carry it.

And so we say . . .

• to those who are worried about their children not practicing the faith: “keep loving them!” And they think, “Yes! I can do that! I absolutely love my children!”
• to those who are worried that their spouse does not listen: “keep gently reaching out!” And they think, “Yes! I can do that! I truly love my spouse!”
• to those who are praying for someone with a serious health issue: “visit them!” And they think, “Yes! I can do that! I want to visit them!”
• to those of us who are religious, worried about vocations: “Live the charism of the Congregation, preach the Gospel, reach out to the poor and the most abandoned, live the apostolic life within the community.” And they think, “Yes! I can do that! It is the very reason I felt called to this religious community!”

Finally, we can point out that when we look at Mary’s hand, we can see that Jesus is holding it with both His hands. Our prayers are perpetually placed by Mary before Our Lord. And Our Lord knows of our prayers immediately and will in time respond.

Well, I do not see too many tears in Brother Dan’s eyes, so I may be all right in regard to basic iconography principles!

Brother Dan, in preparing for this reflection, I did experience what you talked about in regard to the relationship an icon can have with Scripture—that when “reading” an icon you can have a nice back and forth reflection with a particular scriptural text. I found this happened easily with this passage.

And second, I also experienced that the flow of my thoughts did move from Mary to Jesus, just as you said is the natural flow that will occur when “reading” an icon. So in this case I found that I began with requesting Mary’s intercession and then ended with the reality that our prayers were in the hands of Our Lord.

Brother Dan, I thank you for your help in gaining a deeper understanding of the icon of OMPH as we prepare to celebrate the jubilee of our receiving this icon and deepening our desire to “Make her known!”