THE WEDDING FEAST AT CANA, ONE OF THE THREE EPIPHANIES OF CHRIST

Three mysteries of the life of Christ are united together in the liturgy of the Church: the visit of the three wise men, the baptism of Christ, and the wedding feast at Cana. They are part of the epiphany understood more broadly as the public manifestation of the truth proclaimed at Christmas: the birth of Jesus means God becoming human so that we human beings can become sharers in the mystery of God.

The Christmas scene is a private one, with Mary, Joseph, a few shepherds from the neighbourhood, and some domestic animals as its only witnesses. (1) The visit and adoration by the wise men from the east point out to us that the birth of Jesus is a blessing not just for a chosen few, but for the entire human race. (2) The baptism of Jesus is a manifestation to Jesus himself and to those around him that He is the well-beloved Son, and that He is fully anointed by the Spirit for his mission. (3) In the wedding feast at Cana Jesus, beckoned by his Mother, manifests himself, reveals his glory. He shows himself to be the one in whom God is married to humanity and humanity to God, in an intimate embrace way beyond that of the marriage bed.

The Gospels have a global historical value, and there is no reason to doubt that Jesus actually performed such a miracle at some point during his public career. But John tells this incident with a beautiful complexity of symbolically evocative details, details with a deep religious meaning designed to help us on our journey towards salvation. It is that meaning that we need to ponder within our hearts.

God and the chosen people are to be wedded, as the first reading of the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (cycle C) tells us. But the chosen people is not just Israel, called back from the Babylonian exile. Every human being is chosen, every one is beloved of God.

The bridegroom in the story is the one who regulates the wine at the wedding feast. But the real bridegroom is Jesus, who, unknown to the bridegroom in the story, has a profound impact on the celebration, making sure that the festivities will be even more joyful and intense with the high quality wine which he has miraculously provided. In effect, at Mary's prompting, Christ shows himself as the bridegroom who is married to the Church, and, beyond that, God as the bridegroom who is married to His chosen people, a people not divided by artificial boundaries of faith, culture, race, condition of being.

The new wine brings greater intensity and joy to those celebrating this wedding feast. Water is essential for us to survive, yes, but the wine into which Jesus transforms the water brings us far beyond mere survival. God wants a fulness of joy and celebration for every human being. That is our final destiny.

When prompted by his mother, Jesus tells her that his hour has not yet come. He is just at the beginning of his public ministry. But she knows that he will act, and he does. He transforms water into wine as a symbol of what he will do at the end of his public ministry. Then and only then will his hour come. At the last supper he will transform wine into his own blood poured out for our salvation, and in the passion and death fully manifest his glorious identity. Jesus says yes to her without engaging in an act which would be premature at the beginning of his ministry. Everything in its right time and place. At the beginning of his ministry he transforms water poured into the jars into wine poured into the goblets of the wedding guests, at the end of his ministry wine for the celebration of the passover feast into his blood poured out for our salvation.

Let us continue to discern the signs of intensity and joy as we live our lives. These signs are abundant and are a foretaste of what God has in store for us. Of course they are present in the moments of celebration which punctuate our lives. But the second reading of the Second Sunday of Ordinary time (cycle C) bids us find them in the outpouring of the gifts of the Spirit into our communities of faith. Let us also look there and rejoice that we are destined for the fulness of the Spirit.