SECOND SUNDAY OF YEAR “C”

John 2, 1- 11: Marriage Feast of Cana

There was a little boy, the son of a Christian father. The father had a permanently gloomy face. One day the little boy saw a horse, and he shouted to his gloomy dad, “Dad, look at the horse. It must be a Christian, because he too has a long face.” Today’s Gospel is an all time favourite of everybody and his sister. The Russian author Dostoevski wrote, “Cana, the first miracle, when the compassionate one, Jesus, joined not in human sorrow but in human happiness.” Only the evangelist John tells of this miracle. Very possibly he was among the guests present as a teenager. To see Jesus drinking wine and dancing was a delightfully unforgettable memory that he would speak about and finally write down.

The tale also tells a lot about Mary, now about 45 years old, practical and caring, helping the bride’s mother with the steady supply of food and drink.

As we know, it was she who tipped off her Son that the wine had run out. This is a very refreshing picture of Mary, especially for those who imagine her in spotless blue and terricot white, a plastic woman gazing devotedly at the sky with folded hands, as if she had nothing else to do. Gospel writer John corrects this image by depicting a flesh and blood Mary, anxious about keeping the party going. That’s the Mary you pray to, and it’s so much easier. She is the “woman” addressed by Jesus, and associated with him in his work of helping and healing  -  the work of redemption. In other words, Mary was the woman, foretold in the Book of Genesis, whose son would crush the head of the serpent.

But coming back to the social event of the marriage feast. Jesus was there with a band of fishermen in tow, and that may have contributed to the wine shortage, which put Mary in fix. The miracle reveals that whenever Mary was caught in a bind, she turned instinctively to her Son. Having lived with him for 30 years, she knew he would deliver the goods. Despite the apparent rebuff, she turned to the bartenders and told them to stand ready as something good was going to happen. As the Latin expression has it: “Dominus transit et aqua erubuit”  -  the Lord passed by and the water blushed !

Cana was an inconsequential Galilean town of working class people. Today’s story tells us that Jesus was ready to squeeze himself into people’s kitchens, take off his dusty sandals and sit at table, and have a good time.  The God who keeps the vast universe in the palm of his hands is likewise willing to engage himself with our mundane problems. St. Teresa of Avila once said, “Entre las pucheras anda et Senor”  -  God walks among the pots and pans of the kitchen. And in so doing, he changes our lives. The miracle of Cana had good motives, like Jesus’ regard for his mother, kindness to his host, caring for the people, approval of happy occasions, even a hint of the Eucharist.

 But there was something more, namely, his disciples began to believe in him. As the water changed into wine, his disciples changed into believers.

Anytime we genuinely welcome the Teacher into our lives, a miracle takes place. What was colourless becomes a rainbow, what was prosaic becomes poetry.

All this leads up to the final and deepest meaning of today’s Gospel story. Changing Old Testament water into New Testament wine means the passing of the old into the new, signalling the era of the Messiah. The marriage feast is the sign of the banquet of heaven, where there will be community of joy and intimacy in God; and the bridegroom who provides the wine of joy is Jesus himself.

PRAYER (Michel Quoist)

Lord, I have time,

I have plenty of time,

All the time that you give me,

The years of my life,

The days of my years,

The hours of my days,

They are all mine.

Mine to fill, quietly, calmly,

But to fill completely, up to the brim,

To offer them to you,

That of their insipid water

You may make a rich wine

such as you made once

in Cana of Galilee.

I am not asking you tonight, Lord,

for time to do this and then that;

But your grace to do conscientiously,

in the time that you give me,

what you want me to do.