John 2:1–12
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." After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and the brothers, but they stayed there only a few days.
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.