Last week, as we began Ordinary Time again, we celebrated the mystery of the Baptism of the Lord – a moment when Jesus Christ, God-made-Man, fully identified with us humans in our sinfulness and need for the Father’s love and help. Christ’s entire life and mission after that would be sharing with us the new life that God wish us to have through Him. This week’s scene of the wedding at Cana is the beginning of His public revelation of that mission and God’s will to renew the spirit and life of His People Israel – a people that is now fully embodied as the Church. As with the three kings, as with His baptism by John, so now at Cana, Jesus is manifesting His presence and His power as part of His saving mission.
We begin this gospel scene in celebration: “There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.”The wedding feast should recall to us the eternal wedding feast of heaven, where God and His people are perfectly bound in joyful and life-giving worship and celebration. So much of salvation history flows from and points toward a wedding feast. In Jesus’ day, this celebration was a major moment for a community, often lasting several days. The entire community is gathered in celebration around a bride and groom who are establishing a life-long and loving covenant. This covenant is reminiscent of God’s covenant with Israel. So, this is the context in which we encounter Mary, Jesus, and the disciples today.
What then ensues is illustrative of the history of Israel and their covenant with the Lord: “The wine ran short.” And Mary, the embodiment of the People of God, speaks on their behalf of their need: “They have no wine.” In Sacred Scripture, wine has a special significance. Wine is a gift of the fruits of the earth. In brings joy and sustains the life of celebration at the feast. It is also symbolic of God’s abundant and joy-giving blessing. When it fails, the guests will languish, the party will dull, and the people will eventually disperse, exhausted and sad.
This is the perilous condition of the celebration as Mary comes to her Son. Even after His apparent “rebuke” of her, Mary reveals the proper attitude in this situation. When all is apparently lost, we must offer ourselves in total obedience and acquiescence to Christ. Mary’s advice to “Do whatever He tells you” is a call to allow ourselves to depend totally on God. But God doesn’t just come and “fix” us without our involvement.
Jesus commands the servants to fill the jars that are present. These jars call to mind the old Law and the Jewish purification rites. When the servants “fill them to the brim,” it is symbolic of humanity doing all that we can to participate in the divine life. We can only do so much on our own and then we reach a limit. The miracle that will ensue is a sign that God brings about the perfect transformation of life that is necessary for us to reach Him. Jesus is the one who makes that possible.
When Jesus restores the wine, it speaks to His mission of renewing the Covenant between God and Israel and points to the new role that this wine will have. Speaking of His “hour,” Jesus brings to mind the Passion. With the wine present, we are meant to recall how He changes ordinary wine into the extraordinary Gift of His Body and Blood.
This gospel is a masterpiece of theology that shows us the mystery of God-made-man. In Jesus, who is perfectly and fully human and fully divine, we find true reconciliation with the Father. This first sign that He performs teaches us that we need more than the “water” of our human effort; we need God’s transformative power to achieve the “intoxication of grace.” With Jesus’ sign and gift, the celebration not only continues; it is elevated. Jesus produces the equivalent of more than 900 bottles of wine!
We can learn several things from the Wedding at Cana. First, the need to trust Jesus completely. Often in our lives, we put a lot of effort into bringing about results, even in the spiritual realm. I know this as a pastor responsible for evangelizing and growing disciples. The lesson of the wedding is that it is only God’s grace that can make anything fruitful, and we need to be able to trust in that grace totally.
Second, we are invited to participate in Christ’s saving action. Just as the servants were called to fill those stone jars, so we are sent to do what we can to bring others to the Lord. The rest is up to God, but what a gift it is to be able to be a part of that divine work!
Third, we need Jesus. That might sound simple and obvious, but as human beings there is no way that we can come together with the Father without this one Mediator. Fully human and fully divine, Jesus is the one who unites us to the Father and raises us up to that heavenly wedding banquet where the wine never fails and the celebration continues forever.
This is the first of the signs that Jesus performs in His ministry. It will not be the last. But today we are introduced to a Messiah whose mission is to renew the joy of our covenantal relationship with God the Father. In this one Bridegroom, we are united –married even – to the divine world once more.
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