The result of the
miracle at Cana is the first manifestation of Jesus’ glory and the consequent
budding faith of his disciples. Today’s story, then, is above all about transformation: namely, the different
dimension of reality that comes into being when Jesus is present, and when, as
Mary tells the servants, people do whatever Jesus tells them. The
transformation from water to wine is meant by John to signify the effect that
Jesus can have on people’s lives, and can still have today. He came that we might
have life, life in all its fullness.
Mary’s words are
addressed to us: “Do whatever he tells you.” We all experience at one time or
another that “the wine” in our life has run out. Life falls apart on us, in
ways big and little. It is always a bitter moment to realize that it is beyond
us to recover it, to replenish it. It is then that the mother of Jesus tells us
simply: “Do whatever he tells you.”
But what does that
mean? Typically we receive no dramatic directive from heaven of how to remedy a
situation, no sudden strategic inspiration that can turn our life around.
Rather, we can expect a simple, practical “word” addressed personally to us,
such as in today’s Gospel: “Go fill some stone water jars and take them to the
steward.” Or something as simple as what I’ve been hearing during unexpected
and difficult moments these past few weeks: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
This is a life-giving word not clearly aimed at fixing a specific problem but
at changing me. Will I do “whatever”
he tells me? Do I even have “ears to hear” in the first place?
It seems to me that
Mary illustrates in this morning’s Gospel what is critical here. She knew
better than anyone that her Son never meets us only “from without,” but always
from within our deepest selves, within who we truly are. Like Mary, we must
listen to Jesus, not as to someone who stands “outside of us” as an image of
some sort, while we remain fragmentary and untouched in the deepest parts of
ourselves. Rather, the Good News this morning is that every time he speaks to
our hearts, and within our hearts, he manifests a moment when heaven is opened
to us, a moment when the transforming power of God’s love bursts into our
personal world – and like the disciples in today’s Gospel we consequently find
ourselves coming to a deeper belief in Him. We
are changed even more than the water was changed into the best of wines.
Changed how? Fundamentally, as St. Paul tells the Corinthians, we come to know Him more truly as we are known by Him.
