John 2: 1 – 11

There was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. Jesus and his disciples were guests also. When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus’ mother told him, “They’re just about out of wine.”

Jesus said, “Is that any of our business, Mother – yours or mine? This isn’t my time. Don’t push me.”

She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.”

Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus ordered the servants, “Fill the pots with water.” And they filled them to the brim.

“Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host,” Jesus said, and they did.

When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn’t know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom,

“Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best till now!”

This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Gospel Reflection

I would love to have been there when Jesus ‘rebuked’ his mother: the body language, the exchanged glances. Mary’s head held high as she goes over and speaks to the servants gesturing back to her son ‘ Do as he tells you’.

Then Jesus’ raised eyebrows and tiny shake of the head and the ‘sigh’ because ‘it’s his mum’.

If there was ever any evidence that this was a real, human, mother and son relationship then this tiny unspoken ‘pause’ is it.

Mary puts herself in the position of all who call out to Jesus; who demand attention and healing; who shout after him; who touch his clothing and anoint his body.

The people who will take themselves to Jesus knowing who they are and who he is; people who Jesus will allow to argue with him and challenge him.

And Jesus will allow himself to lose; to be persuaded; to be talked into and out of decisions – in public, by the lower classes, the outcasts and the women; to be criticised by those around him, including his own disciples.

‘What Jesus tells us’ – Jesus asks us to make the effort – to fill ourselves with water; the basics of prayer, meditation faith, action and fellowship, to be and to belong to ourselves, to others and to God. Then, with his help, the presence of the Holy Spirit and the Grace of our Father we again become more than we were by ourselves – we become filled with wine, with the fullness of life.

A miracle – and it happens every day.