The Wedding Feast at Cana

By  Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

This wedding event recorded in the Gospel of St. John is a source of many spiritual lessons.  “On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ ‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’; so, they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’” (John 2:1-10)

First lesson from this Gospel incident is the institution of marriage.  The Sacrament of Matrimony that is celebrated in the Church when two people are wed, is the first sacrament instituted by God in Genesis when He blessed the marriage of Adam and Eve, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) Christ presence in the wedding at Cana is a stamp of approval and confirms this holy union of husband and wife as a sacrament in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament.

Second lesson is that marriage is a symbol of our relationship with God.  The fact that the first sacrament instituted by God is marriage means it is the purpose of why He created us humans in the first place because He wants to marry us.  Marriage is the most loving and most intimate relationship we could have in this world, and that is the kind of relationship God wants to have with us.  God expresses this in the book of Isaiah, “As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” (Isaiah 62:5) We also have to remember that Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church is His bride.  (Ephesians 5:25) And since each one of us are members of the Church thus each one of us is a bride of Christ in relation to Him.

Third lesson, our cooperation in grace is needed to acquire the divine life.  Wine symbolizes grace that makes us acquire the divine life for when we drink it, we get intoxicated, a symbol of the effect of grace within us that elevates our human nature to the supernatural or divine nature.  But acquiring divine life is not automatic. It requires our cooperation in responding to the graces God sends us or God’s invitation to an intimate relationship with Him.  The jars of water provided by the servants in the story symbolize our cooperation.  We have to provide water first before God changes it into the wine of divine life.

 

Fourth lesson, Mary’s role and her powerful intercession. The Blessed Virgin Mary’s intercessory role in the salvation of mankind is manifested in interceding for the needs of mankind represented by the running out of wine.  With motherly instinct Mary noticed that the party was running out of wine. This is Christ first miracle and it came prematurely as Christ told His mother, “My hour has not yet come” which meant Christ revealing to the public as the Messiah has not yet come.  But Mary being the mother knew she would not be turned down by His Son when she confidently told the servants, “Do whatever He tells you”, which is another sign of Her spiritual role in relation to mankind by telling us to follow what her Son tells us.   The Blessed Virgin Mary intercedes for our needs especially spiritual needs and she is our most effective intercessor to God in Christ, for how can God deny any request from His mother.