January 6: OUR LADY OF CANA

After his return to Galilee with His first disciples, Jesus and His Mother were invited to a wedding at Cana, near Nazareth.  The bride was related to St. Joseph’s family, the groom to St. Ann.  Both were wealthy.

The Blessed Virgin urged Jesus to accept the invitation; He promised to attend the wedding and to take care of the supply of wine.  Our Lord considered this wedding of great importance for several reasons.  He wished to begin His public ministry by sanctifying and blessing the institution of marriage; to strengthen and unite His new disciples by performing His first public miracle among them; and to refute the unjust criticism that He was neglecting His work, His Mother and His relatives.

Two days of festivities preceded the wedding, which was followed by an evening banquet.  It was here that Mary noticed the wine was scarce.  She reminded Jesus that He had promised to supply the wine.  The Divine Savior had just been speaking of His Heavenly Father; He replied with loving, calm, impersonal majesty:  “What is that to you or to me, Woman?  My hour has not yet come.”

Mary understood that Jesus was waiting for the eternal Father’s permission to perform His first great miracle in public.  Entirely relieved of anxiety for the guests, and trusting the Father would reveal the Lord’s power at the right moment, she went to the worried servants and said to them with quiet modesty and confidence:  “Do whatever He tells you.”

A moment later Jesus told the waiters to bring the water jars to Him and turn them upside down.  The servants brought in six large, stone jars, which when full were so heavy, two men had to carry one.  That they were now empty was evident.  Then Jesus said to the waiters:  “Fill the jars with water.”  After this was done, Jesus went to the jars and blessed them; then He said to the waiters:  “Draw out now and take them to the chief steward.”  When the chief steward, who did not know where the wine came from, tasted the water after it had become wine, he went to the bridegroom, exclaiming in surprise:  “Every man first sets forth the good wine, and when they have drunk freely, then that which is poorer in quality.  But you have kept the good wine until now!”

When the bridegroom and the bride’s father tasted the miraculous wine, they too were amazed, for the servants insisted they had just filled the jars with nothing but water from the well.

Then all the guests drank the new wine and were silent with awe and reverence as they realized they had just witnessed a striking miracle wrought by the Master, Jesus of Nazareth, at the request of His beloved Mother.

From the Woman in Orbit - A Timeless Marian Treasure Compiled By Sr. Manetta Lamberty, S.C.C.

 

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