THE BLESSED VIRGIN AT CANA

 

Jesus performs His first momentous sign at a wedding reception in Cana as recorded by St. John the Evangelist.  The Greek word SEEMION may be read as SIGH, MIRACLE, or DUNAMIS—an act of power.  In Latin, the Catholic Church translates this as SACRAMENT.

 

It was not Our Lord’s First Miracle.  While still in the womb of The Blessed Virgin Mary He accomplished that with St. Elizabeth and her unborn son St. John the Baptist.

 

Stop and consider the nature of this miracle, from womb to womb between unborn children.  How many months, weeks, days had passed since His Immaculate Conception? It has nothing to do with viability—the world needs to hear this.  Life does not gain value or dignity with time, but in virtue of its origin IN GOD.

 

Mary the mother of Our Lord was there at the 3-day wedding feast and celebration.  Her presence is a true sign and a power in the life of her Son and in our lives.  To those in attendance and to us who contemplate this miracle, she addresses these words:

 

Do whatever He tells you. (John 2:5)

 

The wine runs out.  Wine is a sign of happiness, love and plenty.  Too much wine is also a sign of sorrow, loneliness and lack.  The Book of Proverbs warns:

 

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,

And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise. (20:1)

 

Many of our teens and children sense that the wine has run out and no longer to be found in their homes.  How many women, sad and lonely, wonder when love departed, when it slipped away from their lives?  How many mature people feel left out of family celebrations, cast aside as leftovers unfit for preserving and longing each day for a little love or worse, to leave this world to join those who loved them but are long gone?  Do you not know that many of our most mature Christians confined and forgotten in nursing home pray daily to God to take them home to heaven?  Please do not say that you do not at least suspect that this is true:  that’s living in denial and self-delusion.

 

Our families experience the lack of “wine” far too often from circumstances that they cannot control or predict or seem ill-prepared to manage:  unemployment, sickness and disease, school closures, the high cost of living, inability to work, to travel, a failing business, and unfulfilling job, marital conflicts, rebellious children, controlling spouses and out of control emotions just to name a few.

 

The Blessed Virgin is not a harsh or demanding mother or one who takes any pleasure in our immaturity, childishness and naiveté, our mistakes and the things we forget to do.  The Blessed Virgin is a Mother.  She is there, merciful, attentive and concerned.  Go to her for help:

 

 

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

 

The Blessed Virgin shares our cares with her Son Jesus.  She does not go to the headwaiter, she does not consult the stars, appeal to psychics, counsel with therapists or medicate it; no, she does not despair, but she immediately tells her Son of our problems.

 

When we pray, Mary prays.

 

Our Lord’s response seems disheartening:

 

Woman, how does your concern affect Me? My hour has not yet come. (John 2:4)

 

Sometime is seems like our prayers receive a “no” or worse appear rebuffed or go unheard and unanswered.  But she nonetheless places the problem and our lives in God’s hands, as God placed Jesus in her hands.  And really, there is no better place to be than when we can say to Jesus, My Life Is In Your Hands:

 

I know that I can make it
I know that I can stand
No matter what may come my way
My life is in your hands

With Jesus I can take it
With Him, I know I can stand
No matter what may come my way
My life is in your hands

 

Praying always lifts us out of our worries and concerns.  It is like when you have held your breath for as long as you can underwater and come up to gasp for air.  Prayer makes us rise above everything that hurts, upsets or disappoints us, and it puts us in the place of others, it makes us sensitive to the pain of the people we live with or play with or go to school with or work with.

 

Prayer makes us like Jesus: compassionate, gentle, humble, merciful and patient.  Prayer never changes God:  He is always the same Goodness, Truth and Beauty.  But prayer can change us and make us like Him.  Then we can work miracles in the lives of other people.  Prayer does not send Jesus off to do our will or to bring us what we want.  Prayer makes us open, accepting and trusting in God’s will for us, and motivates us to go ourselves.  And He is with us now and everything that comes to us comes through His wounded, nail-pierced Hands.  Remember where we are:  Our life is in the wounded Hands of Jesus.  In His wounds we take refuge and find healing.

 

Blessed Mary’s final words— Do whatever He tells you—is an invitation to us to open our hearts to Jesus, Who came to serve and not to be served.  Service and having a servant’s heart is the sign of true love, true discipleship and true witness to the life of Jesus in us.  We learn this especially in our families where we become servants out of love for one another.  We must make room for each other to live, to be unique, to have dreams and inspiration, but never to the point of competition or conflict.  We cannot say to Blessed Mary that there is no room in our home for her and Jesus.

 

In the heart of the family, NO ONE is excluded, NO ONE is rejected.

 

His Holiness Pope Francis addressed the sign of the family in his recent letter, On Care for our Common Home (Laudato Si):

 

In the family we learn how to ask without demanding, to say ‘thank you’ as an expression of genuine gratitude for what we have been given, to control our aggressiveness and greed, and to ask forgiveness when we have caused harm.  These simple gestures of heartfelt courtesy help to create a culture of shared life and respect for our surroundings (213).

 

The family is the first church, the first school, the nearest emergency room and the best home for the elderly.  In the family God performs miracles with what little we have, with what we are, with what is at hand.  No one has an ideal life.  Many times we lack what we dream to have or wonder why things couldn’t have been different.  Remember, only Jesus can turn dirty water into the finest wine, nothing into something and ugliness into beauty:

 

Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons…And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine he said to JESUS, ‘Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but You have kept the good wine until now.’ (John 2:6,9-10)

 

In our own families and in our larger family of St. Thomas More Catholic Church noone is thrown away, no one is useless, and everyone is someone precious to God.  AMEN.