John 2:1–11
On the third day there was a wedding in
Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had
also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus
said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman,
what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His
mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now standing
there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each
holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with
water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now
draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. When
the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it
came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward
called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine
first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you
have kept the good wine until now." Jesus did this, the first of his
signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed
in him. "
Commentary
The story of the marriage feast at Cana is
narrated by St. John only. And there are many lessons we can learn from this
event in Christ’s life, such as Christ’s approval of marriage or the
intercessory power of Our Lady. The theme of today’s readings, from the first
to the gospel is the goodness and kindness of God and we surely have a
convincing proof of that loving kindness in today’s gospel story.
Christ worked his first miracle in order to
grant a temporal favour, an earthly gift, to save the newly-married groom from
embarrassment. It also had the other effects of convincing his very recent
disciples of their belief that he was the expected Messiah, and also it
convinces all Christians of the efficacy of Our Lady’s intercession for us.
However, our focus should be on the primary purpose of Jesus that was to confer
a temporal benefit on the groom.
By this kind act he has shown us that he is
interested in our earthly affairs. He became man in order that we could become
sons and daughters of God, he came on earth so that we could go to heaven, but
this miracle at Cana proves that he has a deep interest in our many and varied
activities during the course of our journey to heaven.
He told us “ask and you will receive”. Our
prayers will be answered, be it spiritual or temporal aids which we need. We
shall get our temporal requests, provided of course that they would not impede
us on our journey to heaven.
No kind father would give his child a gift
that would injure him because God is the kindest of fathers and he sees what
will or will not impede or endanger our eternal happiness. We can and should
therefore make our temporal needs known to God in our prayers, confident that
he will give us what we ask if it for our real good.
It is not unusual that some may object how
often have I asked God for temporal favours I needed so badly and my prayer was
not answered. Let us face it squarely. Was it not answered really? Perhaps we
did not get the same thing exactly but we got something more useful, more necessary,
and something we never thought of asking for but God saw your need of it.
We have a father in heaven who really loves
us and cares for us. Let us make our temporal as well as our spiritual needs
known to him in confident prayer, and believe that our requests will not go
unanswered. Amen.