The reading of the account of the Marriage Feast of Cana at wedding services does raise my hopes as to the quality of the reception afterwards, and perhaps it might also keep the more secular and pagan guests patient for the following hour.
There is obviously a more profound reason for Jesus to choose a wedding setting for His first miracle. The Gospel of St John needs to be read on two levels, the literal or historical, and the metaphorical. Both are necessary because, without the historical dimension, the Gospel becomes little more than a sublime piece of writing; but neither must the metaphorical be lost since St John, through a process of spiritual meditation, has drawn out the deepest meaning of the words and actions of Jesus Christ.
The Wedding takes place on the third day, thus completing the first week of Jesus’ public life, and it is possible to see the sense of completion with regard to transforming the water into wine. The water of natural religion and of human effort, symbolised in the rite of ablution, and the relatively poor quality wine of the Jewish Feasts have now been replaced by the fine wine of perfect Christian worship. This miracle anticipates the first half of the Gospel, whereby Jesus systematically replaces the festivals of the Jews with Himself, as the living water, the true bread, the light of the world. This replacement is made possible because He is the Good Shepherd and the ‘Resurrection and the Life’.
This systematic replacement of the Jewish festivals was not a merely intellectual activity but took place within the context of the Jewish understanding of the relationship between God and His chosen people. This so-called covenant was described by the Prophets as a marriage between God and Israel.The prophets described the wayward religious practices of the people, with their trust in pagan deities, as a form of spiritual adultery and the breaking of the bond owed to marriage. Jesus therefore re-establishes the relationship between God and Israel in a wedding setting, but not simply as an individual. He comes with His disciples, and the nascent Church will be the place where this covenant is maintained and nurtured through the sacraments. The Church will be understood as the ‘Spouse of Christ’, and this theme is developed by St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, another reading sometimes used at wedding services.
This renewed spiritual relationship initiated by Jesus will be completed through His death on the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead. He will always be faithful, and His fidelity is expressed and experienced in the world as mercy. For our part, this relationship demands responsibility and commitment, similar to that needed by any marriage. The modern world seems to shy away from commitment of this sort, with the misguided apprehension that the finite pot of one’s previous individual freedom must somehow be quickly emptied. This is an impoverished view of the transforming effects a couple may have on each other, of drawing out a richer humanity that looks outward rather than one absorbed with selfish interest. The words of the Virgin Mary, in such a scenario, would hang heavy on the heart, ‘Do whatever He says’ but the truth is the opposite, because the marriage between Christ and His Church is about a shared common life in the one Holy Spirit. The Virgin Mary expresses a perfect faith in the mission of Her Son, and it is this perfect faith that we share, however imperfectly, day by day. Her statement to the servants was the most natural to her. She knew the source of the true worship of God, unlike the stewards. We are invited to share in the knowledge and practice within the Church.
The Feasts of the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord explain how Jesus Christ will save humanity
Throughout this post Christmas period, the advertisers on Heart FM have been promising an extra twelve days of festivities to their ageing listeners, as an additional chance to win some indispensible holiday bargain. What they, and so many others, have quickly forgotten is that the Christmas season was originally twelve days of celebration that began at midnight on Christmas Eve, and which made a sharp contrast to the Lent-like rigours of Advent. Now everything is back to front and, by Boxing Day, the season is over. This is a shame because the Church in these now quiet weeks presents three ‘showings’ of Jesus, the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord, to be followed a week later by the Marriage Feast of Cana, that will determine the manner of His public life, and the way in which Jesus Christ will offer His universal gift of salvation. These showings are the intended outcomes from Jesus’ birth in the stable at Bethlehem and form part of the Church’s traditional Christmas season.
Each event exhibits a great pathos in that the end of Jesus’ life is implied in the beginning. The three gifts of the wise men, gold frankincense and myrrh symbolise some key aspect of being a king, priest and prophet. The infant will become all those, but why should something as good as new born life itself require the herbs of burial? The future mission of Jesus will not take place in a contented world, but in a world of violence, poverty and social isolation. No reason given in the Gospel as to why these gifts were chosen but the third, myrrh shows that the wise men understood the relationship between goodness and martyrdom. Real goodness draws out violence, which is something Plato saw in the death of Socrates. Someone really good would just have to be put to death, so intolerable would he be to those who lived evil and ill-informed lives. The wise men demonstrated that it is possible to grasp both the fracture in the world, the contrast between the reality of evil and the grammar of created goodness, the beautiful natural order that the world possesses.
This natural search for wisdom finds its answer, not in an intellectual form but through the solidarity exhibited by Jesus Christ that His submission to John the Baptist’s actions in the River Jordan that began His public life. This act of solidarity of lining up with sinners shows that Jesus, though aware of the power of evil, does not want to ‘crush the bruised reed, nor quench the wavering flax’. Jesus wants to give life, not to destroy or condemn it. The focus of His mission is on what humanity can become in the light of His triumph over evil, and not just on humanity’s current condition. Therefore the Christian has to fix his or her gaze towards the future, rather than to dwell on the past. The Christian does not reject out of hand his or her past history, because the past, despite all its ambiguities and tragedies, has brought each one to this moment at least.
The answer Jesus gives through His own conduct is the content of faith and also the source of hope. It opens a new vista since Jesus purifies and heals our own relationships with Him, with ourselves and with each other. This healing will allow the shoots of a real human flourishing to take root in our lives. This will not be without its sacrifices or hardships as the gift of myrrh symbolises. Jesus will die on the Cross, accepting that only His ability to love to the end, in His act of solidarity with humanity, will unseal the fountain of grace that is poured upon the Church and into the hearts of all believers.
‘And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive… (CCC2838-2842)
The first petition, in seeking to hallow God’s name at the beginning of the prayer, draws us into seeking to become holy as well. The current petition recognises that the propensity to sin has not disappeared with faith in the Father, and the believer has to turn once again to the source of all forgiveness, the Father. However, this mercy cannot penetrate our hearts unless we have begun to forgive others. Love within the Body of Christ, the Church, is indivisible, and this petition forms a virtuous circle, of seeking and offering forgiveness. This cycle is impossible to begin unless through the explicit recognition of God’s gracious action. Jesus repeats this injunction when he demands perfection and mercy in imitation of the Father, all of which is summed up in His new commandment, ‘that you love one another even as I have loved you’. (Jn 13:34). This imitation can never be one of external coercion, but of an internal willing imitation. (To be continued).
