They Have No Wine
Our Lady at the foundations of this diocese
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”– John 2:1-6
We know the rest of the story. Jesus tells the servers to fill six water pots with water and bring them to the headwaiter, who tastes them only to discover they have become wine.
The story you just heard has become a pattern over the centuries. There was a wedding feast in Cana and they ran out of wine. Mary saw that they were in need and she wasted no time. She knew who could help them. So she went to her Son and told Him, “They have no wine.” Jesus says, “What concern is this of mine?” but she won’t take no for an answer. She already knows He won’t refuse His mother. She simply ignores Him (as a mother would do) and then tells the waiters, “Do whatever He tells you.” She knows He will answer the prayer, so simply follow His instructions and all will be well.
This has been Mary’s role throughout the centuries. Jesus knew what He was doing when He gave us His mother as our mother from the cross. Over and over again she has noticed our need, both material and spiritual and gone to her Son knowing that her prayer will not be refused. Then she tells us to do whatever He should tell us to do, to let Him use us as His instruments to work whatever miracles He wishes.
With that in mind, I want to bring you back to the year 1634. A young nun named Sr. Marie of the Incarnation had just finished her prayers and gone to bed when she had a dream. She is being led through a beautiful land to some destination, she knows not where. Finally, she arrives and what she sees has everything to do with our story. I want to read this excerpt from her journals to you:
Advancing within, I saw at some distance to my left a little church of wrought white marble, on top of which was the Blessed Virgin, seated on the pinnacle. She was holding the Child Jesus on her lap. This place was very elevated, and below it lay a majestic and vast country, full of mountains, of valleys, and of thick mists which permeated everything except the little building which was the church of this country.
The Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, looked down on this country, as pitiable as it was awesome.…I ran towards this divine Mother and stretched out my arms so that they touched the two ends of this little church on top of which she was seated. Eagerly I awaited some word from her. As she gazed upon this unfortunate country I could see her only from behind. Then I beheld her become supple and look at her Divine Child, to whom she silently intimated something important concerning myself. It seemed to me that she spoke about this country and about myself and that she had in mind some plan which involved me.
Marie says this country was pitiable and unfortunate. Why? Because the souls therein did not know Jesus. The Mother God sat atop this little church looking on it with sadness. They did not know her Son, they did not know the love and the joy He wished to pour upon them, and her heart. And so what did the Mother of God do? She whispered into the ears of her divine Child, “They have no wine. They need you. Who will bring you to them? Who bring them your love?” And in the midst of this conversation, Sr. Marie steps in. She knows they’re talking about her, she knows they have some plan, but she has no idea what it is.
What is this land that the Mother of God was so concerned for? What is this land that Sr. Marie (now St. Marie of the Incarnation) was shown? Months later, Sr. Marie had a vision in which Jesus appeared her. She writes:
One day, while my soul was in these dispositions, I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament when my spirit was of a sudden ravished in God. During this rapture the vast country which had already been shown to me in the manner I have described above was represented to me with all its circumstances. Then this adorable Majesty said to me, “It is Canada that I have shown you; there you must go to make a home for Jesus and Mary.”
Canada. Our Lady was praying for Canada. This could be presumptuous, but I would be willing to wager that Jesus did not have modern political boundaries in mind when He showed St. Marie this vast land. At the time of St. Marie, that vast land included most of what is now the state of Maine. Our Lady look out over, yes, Quebec and Montreal and saw souls being lost there, but also over Madawaska and Jackman and Bangor and Skowhegan. She was praying for us. And what was their mission for St. Marie?: to make a home here for Jesus and Mary.
Thus missionaries began being called to this frontier wilderness to bring the gospel to native Americans who had never heard it before. When you look at the stained glass windows of the church, it’s like watching the conversation between Jesus and Mary on that hill unfold before our eyes. The earliest priests depicted there are Fr. Pierre Biard and Fr. Enemond Masse who founded the first Catholic mission on Mount Desert Island in 1614. The mission began when a child was miraculously cured after having been baptized and it ended when an English ship raided the mission and took Fr. Biard prisoner. Fr. Gabriel Druillettes continued the work of making a home here for Jesus and Mary. Seeing the joy of tribe members who had embraced the faith in Canada, Abenakis on the Kennebec begged that a priest be sent to them so that they could receive the sacraments. For two years Fr. Gabriel sent to them and he founded the mission of the Assumption in Augusta and the Norridgewock mission that Fr. Rale would later become pastor of. And finally we come to Fr. Rale, the first permanent pastor of the Norridgewock tribe. These men were an answer to Our Lady’s prayer. She saw the needs of this territory, she saw we had no wine, and her prayers to her Son were answered.
Today, we’re going to follow the life of Fr. Sebastian Rale who was one of these missionaries sent to bring the love of Jesus to the state of Maine. We’re going to meditate on his example and the lessons he can teach us about how to live as Christians. But we’re going to do more than just that. We are going with Mary to Jesus to tell Him, “We have no wine,” that souls are thirsting for Him in the state of Maine and they don’t even know it. And after that what will we do? We will ask Jesus for the grace to do just what Our Lady asked and do whatever He tells us, so that we can be His instrument in this great plan of His for the state of Maine.
For the next thirty minutes, you’ll have some time to talk to Jesus and prepare yourself for the journey you’re about to undertake. You can see in the program there are reflection questions. I would encourage you to reflect a little about your needs, the needs of your family and the needs of this state. When you’re ready, I would encourage you to approach the altar and kneeling face to face before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, lay those needs before Him.
The second step, to do whatever He tells us, will be difficult and so I would ask you to then pick up both a Miraculous Medal and a rosary. The Miraculous Medal was given to us by Our Lady in 1830, who promised great graces to those who wore it around their neck. The Miraculous Medal is Our Lady’s shield for you in the spiritual battle, the rosary is her weapon. If you offer yourself to the service of Jesus, you’ll find you use both quite a bit. Once you have taken one of each, I would encourage you to say the prayer printed in the program and then return to your seat.
Again, you’ll have thirty minutes. I would encourage more than one person to go at a time, otherwise we will run out of time before the thirty minutes are up. After those thirty minutes, a bell will ring and we will begin a rosary with Fr. Rale.
Who Does This Land Belong To?
Making a home for Jesus and Mary in Maine
Thus we come to the end of the story. Jesus is taken down from the cross and placed in the arms of His mother, who loved Him more than anyone. Fr. Rale’s body is taken in the arms of his flock, who loved him more than anyone.
Some say that no one knows where they buried his body since the body was hidden to keep it from being desecrated. According to the account by his superior, his body was buried here, beneath the altar where Fr. Rale stood at the foot Calvary in the Mass every day before he went to his own Calvary. A hundred years later, Bishop Benedict Fenwick bought this land and erected a monument in honor of this devoted pastor. Interestingly enough, when you look at the deed to the land, Bishop Fenwick bought the land for 100 pieces of silver, the same price that was set on Fr. Rale’s head by the English.
What can we learn from this? What I first like to point out is that this conflict that led to Fr. Rale’s death runs deeper than might first meet the eye. At first glance, you might think this was all a fight over land rights. After all, when you look at the wars that preceded the Norridgewock massacre, they’re all disputes over who has the rightful claim to this land east of the Kennebec. But I would argue something else is going on. This is still a dispute over land rights, but at its core it wasn’t about whether the land belonged to the Indians or the English. At its core, this was about whether or not this land belonged to Jesus Christ.
Think back to the beginning of this pilgrimage. What was the mission given by Jesus and Mary to St. Marie of the Incarnation? To make a home here for Jesus and Mary. What was Fr. Rale doing here? He was making a home for Jesus and Mary among the people of Maine. He was preaching the gospel to them and making room for Jesus in the hearts of the Norridgewock tribe. He was building churches, one in honor of Mary, where Jesus would take up his abode, body, blood, soul and divinity. He was insisting on the law given to us by God, that Jesus might be the ultimate ruler of this land.
Now look at the sins the English fell into. First, they rejected Jesus’ rule and His laws. They thought they had justice on their side because they could trot out legal technicalities that made it look like this land belonged to them, but they did so by ignoring a law that was higher than their treaties and contracts. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet they neighbors’ goods, thou shalt not kill are not subject to revision by human beings. These are laws given to us by God and their observance is commanded by Jesus Christ. But the English ignored them.
Then when they had snubbed Jesus’ commands, they tried to drive Jesus Himself from this land. They began by outlawing all priests. The very men Jesus had appointed to make Himself present, body, blood, soul and divinity they banned. The very men Jesus had appointed to be instruments of His mercy in the sacrament of confession, they banned. And if a priest of Jesus Christ were caught within New England territory, he would either be imprisoned for life or killed.
When they had driven Jesus from New England, they then attacked Him in Norridgewock. The church that Fr. Rale had been so careful to decorate, to make it a fitting home for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, they burned down three times. The first two times they did this, Fr. Rale had removed the Blessed Sacrament to protect Our Lord from abuse. But the third time, the pastor was not there to intervene. They had already killed him. They went to the tabernacle and abused Our Lord’s sacred body and then burned His house.
You see? This wasn’t a fight about whether the land belonged to the English or the Indians. This was a fight about whether this land belonged to Jesus Christ.
This land belongs to Jesus. The people of Maine have been purchased by Jesus Christ when He shed His blood and died for them. Whether they realize it or not, these people and this land belong to Him.
This land belongs to Mary. When He died on the cross, Jesus gave us Mary as our Mother: “Behold thy Mother!” She is queen of Heaven and Earth and she has a special love for Maine. She has been praying for this land for centuries, that her Son might have a home here. She has adopted us as our patroness and our diocese is dedicated to her under the title of the Immaculate Conception.
This land belongs to Jesus and Mary and it’s time we made a home for them here. In this time when families are falling apart, it is time that the people of Maine knew that they have a mother and her name is Mary. She has been praying for them since before they were born. She continues to pray for us and be a mother to all the people of this state.
In this time of political division, it is time that the people of Maine knew that they have a king to whom they owe their ultimate allegiance and His name is Jesus Christ. He is their savior, His laws and policies are just, and it is Him that they should serve.
The work begun by men like Fr. Rale, to make a home for Jesus and Mary in the state of Maine, is not yet finished. Now it is our turn. Let us go with Mary to Jesus and tell Him that the people of Maine have no wine. Then let us do whatever He tells us.
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