“They
have no wine.” Those are the first words
that we hear come out of Mary’s mouth in John’s Gospel today. So
often, we see Mary noticing something that the others don’t. Mary’s
always displays a great openness to God’s will in her life and in the lives of
others. So,
it is Mary’s willingness to be open to God and to be attuned to God’s will,
that allows her to notice that they are out of wine at this joyful wedding
feast. Of
all the people at the wedding, Mary was the only one who knew about Jesus and
what he was capable of. At
this point, Jesus had not performed any miracle or healing, he hadn’t
proclaimed God’s kingdom yet to the people of Israel. So,
logically, when Mary discovers that they are out of wine, she turns to her son,
Jesus.
But
Jesus’ response might surprise us: How does your concern affect me? This is not my hour yet. We sense that he is telling Mary to mind her
own business. Yet,
Mary doesn’t give up, does she? Mary,
strong and tenacious, trusts that Jesus would solve the problem. Mary
trusts in God. She knows that the hour
has come for Jesus. She
knows that her son might need a little shove from his mother in order to get
started.
That
takes us to Mary’s second line in today’s Gospel, as she turns to the wine
steward and says: “Do whatever my son tells you.” Could
anyone give better advice than that? Do
whatever Jesus tells you to do. As
always, Mary points us to Jesus. She
never draws attention to herself. She
never wants accolades or honor or glory.
She quietly yet courageously points us to her son. We
cannot go to Mary in our prayer petitions, we cannot pray the rosary, we cannot
celebrate a Marian holy day in our Church without realizing that it will all be
directed to Jesus, that he is at the center of whatever we bring to Mary. The
more we grow in our love and devotion to Mary, the more we grow in our faith in
Jesus.
There
is only one other appearance of Mary in John’s Gospel besides the Wedding of
Cana. John
next shows Mary at the foot of her son’s cross as he is being crucified, as his
other disciple had fled in fear for their own lives. From
the cross, Jesus makes Mary the spiritual mother of his beloved disciple,
John. In
that act, Jesus symbolically makes Mary the mother of all who believe in him. Through Mary’s concern and prayers, we Catholics believe that she helps encourage
the work of her Son, that work that first began at the Wedding of Cana.
Ultimately, we can see this Gospel story of the Wedding of Cana as a story of
transformation. Just
as Jesus transformed the water into wine, we're transformed on our journey of
faith. We're
transformed into sacramental beings, into a life-giving presence in our world,
just as the wine was transformed to give joy and life to the wedding guests. But,
we must be willing to change. We
must be willing to trust and risk a transformation, just as Mary trusted Jesus
to take care of this situation at the wedding.
The
miracle at the Wedding at Cana is such a marvelous story for us to share
together as a community of faith. It
calls us to joyfully re-commitment ourselves to live the Good News of Jesus Christ
each day of our lives. It
calls us to be open to transformation and renewal. Our
lives are like the water that was transformed by Jesus. Indeed, our lives are a gift from God that will be continuously transformed
into the finest wine along our journey of faith.
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