It Happened at a Wedding

The miracle that Jesus performed at the wedding in Cana is a multi-layered and instructive episode from the Gospel of St John. We can benefit from sincere reflection upon this seemingly ordinary but profoundly extraordinary event. 

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Notice that the Bible begins with a wedding, that of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, and it ends with one too, that of the marriage supper of the Lamb in the book of the Apocalypse. Marriage is God's chosen symbol of the relationship that He desires to have with the people to whom He has committed Himself in covenant. He is the groom, and humanity is his beloved and sought after bride. The first reading of today's Holy Mass contains that impressive line So will the one who built you wed you, and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you. So marriage between man and woman is important to God, and the presence of Christ at a wedding is an indication of this. But even more so that Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding shows that marriage is the key for us to come to appreciate how God wishes to be understood in relation to mankind. We have to be careful not to keep this at arm's length only in the realm of theory. The Son of God became enfleshed in our humanity, and he died for each of us. He, the divine bridegroom, gave everything for each one of us, and so he looks upon each of us in the same way that a bridegroom rejoices in and loves his bride. This is a love that is deeply personal, and at the same time intimately knowing. We will spend our whole life learning how to respond to and return such awesome love. We must be very grateful to Saint John that he included in his gospel the account of the wedding feast at Cana. Most likely in the years he spent with our lady, being the son who looked after him, sorry, being the son who looked after her, as Christ asked him to do from the cross at Calvary. He was told many things that Mary remembered, as well as how she understood them from her unique perspective. By the grace of God she was preserved from the stain of original sin at her conception, and preserved free from sin throughout her life. Her mind was not weakened by sin, so she could comprehend what we would not be able to. There is a song that sometimes is heard at Christmas called Mary Did You Know? Perhaps you've heard it. It asks many times did Mary know who her son was and what he would do. It's insulting, blasphemous is the correct term, because it drags Mary down to the level of an ordinary woman. But God raised her above normal human nature by the work of grace. So she knew more, she could comprehend better the plans of God, she could penetrate more deeply into the will of God. And this is precisely what is presented to us in the gospel account of what happened at Cana. With her attentive eye, our lady notices a serious problem that there is no longer enough wine for the wedding feast. This will embarrass the wedding couple. Mary informs Jesus of the problem. How she speaks to him is an example to us of trustful intercession. She simply presents him with the difficulty they have no wine. His response is immensely respectful, calling her by the formal title woman. It's interesting how the rest of his response is translated into English. We heard why turn to me. Other translations render it what have you to do with me? Or what concern is that to you and to me? However that part is translated from the Greek, what follows is my hour has not yet come. Then Mary says to the servants Do whatever he tells you. And then Christ acts to show his glory and power as God, and changes the substance of water into the substance of wine, a miraculous change of nature that foreshadows the even more miraculous transubstantiation of bread into his body, and wine into his blood at holy mass. That Jesus responded positively to his mother's intercession shows us both the power of her intercession with him, as well as how he desires to associate her with his mission of the salvation of the world. As Saint John rightly knew from his own experience, since he was present at both occasions, this episode at Cana itself points forward to the close association that Mary would have as she stood at the foot of the cross, as her beloved son bled and died for the world's sins. She would be there too, and he would call her woman again, and commit into her care the beginnings of his church in the person of Saint John. The lesson for us is that we can always go to Mary for the solution of intractable problems, confident in her power to intercede with her son for us. But also we can be confident in the great love that Jesus has for his holy mother, and how he can refuse her nothing. But there is a hidden layer in this as well. When Mary said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you, she becomes a spokeswoman for Christ's will. You see, that is another result of her immaculate conception, and why that song I referred to earlier is in error. Mary knows the will of God clearly and unequivocally. She always did it, and she still always does it. That is why at Fatima she spoke to the children of the triumph of her immaculate heart. Where and when her immaculate heart triumphs, there and then is the will of God done completely and fully. Also in the Gospels at this point Mary's voice goes silent. We do not hear her again, although she is present for a long while, even into the Acts of the Apostles. Those words do whatever he tells you are her spiritual testament to the church and to the world, to each of us. Let us draw close to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for there is no surer way to the divine will than through her. May her immaculate heart triumph in our lives, in the church, and in the world.