The story of the events at Cana, starts by declaring that they took place ‘on the third day’. St. John wants the reader to be aware that something Sacred is about to reach its fulfilment and that what is about to unfold is in the hands of God. This happens at a wedding feast. But in this case the ‘two’ who are to become ‘One’ are not just a bride and a groom but humanity – represented by the Blessed Mother – and God – present as the Beloved Son.
The Mother of Jesus speaks on behalf of humanity. She presents our brokenness, our lack, our pain resulting from our distance from God. She expresses this to the Beloved Son of God with the haunting and poignant words, “They have no wine”. She tells it like it is. Our broken communion with God and with each other is killing us. How many times in the Gospel does this plea express itself in other ways? The official whose son is dying, the cripple who has no one to put him in the pool, the Apostle who does not have enough bread for the hungry, Martha and Mary at the tomb of their brother. Each of these sing the song of human affliction; a dirge which allows for no celebration.
In reply, the Beloved Son calls his mother ‘Woman’ – mother of all the living. It is a title of reverence and an acknowledgement of her vocation to seek the wellbeing of her children. And when He asks her how this ‘hurt’ belongs to Him and to her, He is preparing her heart for Revelation. It is the Mission of the Beloved Son to give life to the world. (Jn:3:16-17). Her answer places their concern for everything right in the middle of their relationship. Jesus supplies the wine for the imperilled marriage of the Sacred and the Human. His mother knows who to turn to when the wine runs out!
When Jesus, who lives close to the Fathers heart, saw two disciples tailing Him, He asked them to “Come and See” what this closeness was like. Later in the Gospel, when Jesus asks where they have laid Lazarus, He is told, “Come and See”. As He is drawn into the tears of loss, He becomes one with those He loves. He embraces the utter vulnerability of human life. This is the path Sacred Love takes. It does not save from the outside but enters in to save from the inside. This is why, the hour, the condition for the production of great wine at the wedding in Cana, is drinking the sour wine of Golgotha. This is the truth of the ‘hour’ and one of the most precious truths of our faith.
The Mother of the Beloved Son knows this and, as the spokesperson for humanity in danger, she instructs the servants – that’s us- to do whatever He tells them. All our efforts to stay ritually clean with water poured from outside – the six stone jars of water – are useless. Instead, the Beloved Son fills them to the brim; an abundance of wine now, that fills from the inside. A beautiful image of the Holy Spirit. It is God who holds the communion and provides what is needed. It is the Spirit, poured into our hearts who gives life.
This ‘Sign’, the first, works on two levels, the sensual and the spiritual. The reader is challenged to follow the clues beyond what can be seen, heard, touched, tasted, smelled and felt to taste the truth of Jesus’ Glory and then give their heart to Him. Others will follow. Not in sequence 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 but as windows opening on the same truth. Each ‘Sign’ will call those who gaze through them from surface to depth, from exterior religion to interior adoration. In short, the reader has, in the words of one anonymous disciple, to dream that they danced with Jesus at the Wedding Feast, and pressing their ear to His Heart entered the secret, saving, Sacred presence of God!
