WHAT DOES THE Wedding Feast at Cana tell us about our spiritual mother, Mary?
Mary takes notice of our issues; intercedes with Jesus; trusts and obeys. While it may not seem necessary in the view of many for Mary to intercede on our behalf with Jesus, it is Jesus, Himself, who allows, if not wills this role for Mary. The mission of Mary as the first disciple is to bring souls to her son. As theologian Peter Kreeft states: “Mary is the neck that can turn the head of Jesus;” she is the highway to the heart of Jesus. What has the Wedding Feast at Cana to do with us in the here and now? How can we make sense of this miracle ending with abundant blessings and extravagant generosity by Jesus, especially in our families, community and world where we see material and spiritual poverty all around us? Each of us, at one or more times, even perhaps now, has cried out: we have no wine; my son is an addict; I am unnoticed and unloved; we have no joy; we are empty and downhearted; our world is without flavor; our relationships have run dry; all is not well. We do not want poetry, songs, or stories – we want wine! We want wholeness! We want spiritual connection to God! The best wine in our lives.
On those days when the wine runs low, we can begin to doubt our faith. The blessings of God may appear to have left us, that God is absent. Perhaps it happens after someone’s death, a serious health problem, a troubled relationship. We sense a lack of meaning and purpose, longing for something we cannot name. But it need not be so if we seek the wholeness Cana offers. First, consider why we run out of wine, why our spiritual condition is less than fully alive. Have we chosen self-centeredness, control, attachment to material goods over a relationship with and dependent upon, God? The Wedding Feast at Cana is premised on anything but self-reliance. Have we forgotten, as one Gospel commentator put it, we are the recipients and not the creators of our lives? Nothing is sure to deplete our wine faster than fighting against our dependence upon God, our Creator, in whose image we are made, not the other way around. It seems we sometimes need to run out of wine to remind us to turn to Jesus who gives us beyond what is needed, the best wine, the wine turned to Blood in the Eucharist, that which “eye has not seen nor ear heard (1 Cor. 2:9)” – a continuous flow of grace.
So pray, talk to God, name your intention; describe the problem; express your desire but refrain from directing the means of resolution; all without argument, control or demands. Exercise that liberating power of telling God the truth. Ask, but do not specify the how or the when. Then be willing to cooperate, like Mary and the servants at Cana, to “do whatever he tells you.”
Model Mary’s continuous fiat, her “yes,” “thy will be done,” and participate in bringing the wine to others when they run low.
Our lives as disciples are lived in the tension between Mary’s two statements: “they have no wine” and “do whatever he tells you.” One day, our wine may run out; let that day become the day the miracle of Cana begins anew for each of us.
The poem, “Wedding Toast,” by Richard Wilbur, extends this apt blessing: “May you not lack for water and may that water smack of Cana’s wine.”