The Marriage Feast of Cana points to the heart of the relationship between Christ and His Church
Posted on January 17th 2010 in Weekly messages
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of human effort, symbolised in the rite of ablution, and the relatively poor quality wine of the Jewish Feasts have now been replaced by the fine wine of perfect Christian worship.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.