On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." Jesus said to here, "Woman how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you." Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons, Jesus told them, "Fill the jars with water". So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from, the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now. Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory and his disciples began to believe him."
This account from the Gospel of John on Jesus's first public miracle is a refuge for me in scripture. The Wedding at Cana is steeped in spiritual insight, humble grace, comfort of God's life changing mercy. The Wedding at Cana is like a cake filled with layers of spiritual food and guidance. It invites us to glimpse at Jesus as man and God - the bridge of humanity and divinity in God's revelation of Himself to us - fully human and fully divine. The most striking aspect of the narrative is the petitions of Mary and her intercession in calling on her son, Our Lord, to answer the chaos and frustrations of the world in grace. Mary's petitions and faith in her son at Cana are the WORD Incarnate's call for us to petition HIS mercy in prayer, while Mary also sums up the Christian foundation in her petition of faith: Do whatever He tells you.
During times of temporal lack, fear of loss, worry over finances, illness and dis-ease we are prone to anxiety. In petitioning God in these times we often struggle with feelings of betrayal - as if God has not stepped up to our cause because our prayers are not being answered speedily and/or in the way we demand. I am guilty of this. I question, 'why can't you help me.' Mary gives us the answer for prayer and supplication as well as trust in Jesus's infinite and constant mercy. Christ never withholds HIS mercy from our souls - if we are not granted a petition - Christ draws us into drink, not the old wine of the flesh, but the new wine of HIS SPIRIT. When petitioning Christ we must do so with the expectation of listening to HIS voice and doing what HE tells us to do. In doing God's will, however we must never mistake complaining and lack of faith, with the act of faithful dialogue.
Dialogue - I chose this word because in prayer we are conversing with God. In Christ we have direct access to God's grace. To cross the bridge of grace we must be willing to have a conversation with God. Dialogue is a conversation in faith - where we don't arbitrarily accept God's instruction without comprehension. God wants us to be like Abraham and Mary, asking so we might perceive HIS clearly and willing to demand grace for those in desperate need - not because of our worthiness but because in faith we have a trust and knowledge of God's character of love and mercy - to not demand God give HIS true self to us is a corrupted form of dialogue and prayer.
I believe that God wants us to dialogue with Him, turning all worry and hope over to His counsel. God asks us at times, that we 'argue in faith' as Abraham did against Sodom or Mary does at Cana. This dialogue is a pleading for mercy, a search for God's grace in action and conversation with discovering God's nature and moving through the darkness to embrace the light of His love, even in darkness. I see this 'arguing in faith,' as a dialogue where the petitioner does not doubt God's infinite majesty or goodness, but through faith in the knowledge of God's love and justice cannot comprehend why God at times chooses to remain silent. This arguing in faith demands God's countenance, not by our merit but knowledge of HIS grace and power. Prayer draws us into a quest to perceive God's will and be an advocate of God's mercy in action. God is love, God is mercy - if we follow God and love HIS being how can we in a Spirit of God not question when evil seems to have taken hold, or God seems far off from creation. In this dialogue God helps us to perceive the forest for the trees, He invites us to empathy and hope in grace, as well as reminding us to trust that even in darkness - the smallest flicker of God's light is inexhaustible. God is at work, even when He appears silent.
Time and again I come to conversation with God about an issue, particularly darkness in the world both in my life and humanity that crushes the human spirit. I demand action, help, hope in Christ. , and in the process if we discover God will not act in the process, accepting that inaction (God always acts, He is always at work for our highest good, even if it seems at times God has betrayed us or let us down, God is at work for good, the world is the darkness - God is a light - sometimes we are just so blinded by the obstructive darkness we fail to follow the light of Christ - instead choosing ego over faith.
Mary shows us the weight of balance in trusting God's will through her son and also resilience in spirit to demand God's action, not by human merit, but Mary perceives God's love and goodness and knows that her son, Jesus is merciful and has the ability to give new life to the wedding party. Mary does not try to test Christ, but rather acts in prayer, faith and trust. 'Do whatever he tells you."
How often do we fall into doubt when prayers seem unanswered - I get so bent into the pattern of exact petitioning that I fail to acknowledge opening doors in my life that are answers from God, answers of HIS will - and yet we get so blinded by our own periscope vision we fail to 'do whatever God tells us.' We get lost in details.
Jesus's first statement:
"Woman, how does your concern affect me?" Seems cold and callous at first, but Christ is in dialogue with His Blessed Mother (and us). God does not owe us anything by the law, in human perspective - broken by sin - we are not responsible for anyone but ourselves. Jesus's statement sounds like a 21st century shrug - 'so what?' It is not - Jesus is fully aware of the parties needs before Mary addresses them...God through Christ however wants to hear about our troubles from us directly - so he can converse with us and help guide us - but when we are in dialogue with God we must submit to HIS will otherwise we will always run out of 'wine' - we will thirst - unable to obtain what we most desire - that which is God and HIS will. Anything else will never fulfill us. God wants communion with us, at times that means answering our petitions speedily by human impatient standards - other times, His time has not yet come - that does not mean God is not at work in mercy - but we need to see the long term picture - whether what we ask for will tear us apart from God or the timing is off, and we must patiently wait.
God invites us to dig into questions with Him through faith when prayers seem lost, that is why we must pray without ceasing and be willing to open our hearts to God's will - God always works through our prayers even in the darkest of night - we must trust the process and know that God's timing is always right.
God's propensity to mercy is shown in Christ agreeing to help His mother at Cana - while God is not bound by time, his very nature of mercy compels Him to act - so acknowledging God is acting on our behalf we can never tire even when we face persecution. God is at work through Christ and the Holy Spirit.
"On the third day, there is a wedding in Cana."
While the Wedding at Cana is a historical event it also is a symbol of Christ's coming kingdom and Christ's church...contrasting the emptiness of the world to Christ's empty tomb in Resurrection Sunday. The people of the feast need more than temporal sustenance, they require eternal life - a new wine that will sustain them. In turning water into wine, Christ establishes himself as the new wine for humanity - a savior - if we drink the wine of Christ we find detachment from the world's darkness - the false life of material things is usurped by the bounty of the eternity of life in Christ.
To transform our lives in Christ we must be willing to 'do whatever he tells you.' We must forgo the 'wine of the world' and drink the wine of the Spirit, which is Christ. I believe that the Eucharist is the embodiment of Christ's presence in the wafer and wine...when we come to communion we are breaking bread as they did at the Wedding at Cana and the Last Supper - willing to let the will of the flesh die and do the will of Jesus.
Symbolically this a precursor to Christ's symbolism as the bridegroom and church (which we are all one body in Christ) His bride and in that union - through Christ's life, death and resurrection we are one with Christ.
I will continue to write periodically on this passage, but below are a few key lessons.
Key Lessons:
- Never Give up Hope on Christ's action in your life, even in small affairs. Jesus in asking 'Woman how does your concern affect me,' posits the depths of the spirit - we are so far from God - separated by sin - and yet we are God's business for God made us in His image, God formed us in the womb and Christ died for us.
-God cares for our spiritual needs and temporal needs. The Wedding at Cana provides both the temporal remedy of more wine for a wedding feast while also God's work of feeding us with spiritual food in the Holy Trinity.
- Mary's example of how to pray and petition Christ: Ask and demand by the measure of God's mercy and do whatever God directs in the situation. Continue to pray for discernment if God's answer is uncertain - petitioning unceasingly with praise and inquiry - without getting so boxed into repetition of 'I want' instead we must submit to 'God's will.' Be willing to ask 'What is God's will? Are we allowing personal ego to drive our view of what God's will is for us, either by barring entry to grace in times of suffering (suffer through in silence) or abandonment of God's call to sacrifice and empathy because our will is relying of the flesh?
- What is the food we hunger for? What do we thirst for?
- Jesus can take something empty and decaying and make us cleansed and whole (symbolism of stone water jars for ceremonial cleansing - we are only truly cleansed and fed in Christ)
- God's primary concern is for our souls. God exists outside of time and space and thereby can have the perspective of how to answer our call. God's seemingly lack of action on an issue may be something so far out of our perception we cannot currently understand God's will - we must trust that God is always at work in our lives through Christ and the Holy Spirit - Three in One.
-Are we listening to God? Are we so caught up in the expectation we forget to trust God, in turn submitting to worry - thus closing off ourselves to God's grace and direction.
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