The Wedding At Cana
          The miracle at the wedding at Cana, in which Jesus turned water into wine, is the very first public miracle of Jesus. It is quite logical that we find this story in the section of John’s gospel where he introduces the public ministry of Jesus. John’s gospel, unlike other gospels, have only three accounts of healing miracles of Jesus and two stories of physical change or
miracle: one of which is the multiplication of the bread, and the other one is the wedding at Cana, which is the Gospel today.
            We don’t really have details in the Gospel as to why Mary and Jesus and his disciples were there at that wedding in the first place. There are several extra biblical references that date back almost to the same time when the Gospels were written that would shed a little bit of light on other missing information about this famous wedding feast in Cana. One of the early Egyptian/Coptic writings states that Mary was actually there because she was the sister of the bridegroom’s mother, which also explains why it sounded like she was in charge of something in that wedding. There is also a very ancient literature called the Monarchian Prefaces which tell us that the bridegroom was none other than John himself, and that his mother was Salome, the sister of Mary. As to the veracity of this information, scholars are quite divided. Setting aside all these historical details, what we have in this Gospel is a very powerful revelation of who Jesus is that is full of paradoxes —remember that this is only the start of the public ministry of Jesus. 
          Let us first look at some important details of the story for us to better understand what John was trying to teach us. First, we were told that this is a wedding feast. In the Jewish tradition and culture, the wedding feast is one of the most important events in a person’s life. The wedding feast itself lasts for more than a day. Weddings at that time were usually done on a Wednesday. One scholar describes a Jewish wedding during the time of Jesus this way: “A newly married couple did not go away for a honeymoon; they stayed at home and, for a week, they kept their house open. They wore crowns and dressed in bridal robes. They were treated like a king and queen and were actually addressed as king and queen, and their word was law. In life, where there was much poverty and constant hard work, this week of festivity and joy was one of the supreme occasions.”
          Then, we have the wine. Wine is a very essential component of a Jewish feast. One famous rabbi once wrote, “without wine, there is no joy.” Not that the people in that part of the world were drunkards, but wine was a very important part of their festivity, and to run out of it in a regular feast would have been a embarrassment since hospitality was a very sacred duty for them. So, to run out of wine in one of the most special occasions like the wedding would have been a huge humiliation for the family of the couple.  This was the reason why Mary stepped in to help. The conversation between Mary and Jesus for our modern ear would sound quite off, rough and disrespectful. But, for a Jew during that time of Jesus, it was more like a casual conversation. When Jesus addressed Mary as “woman”, it didn’t mean any disrespect for Mary. The word “woman” was actually used during the time of Jesus to politely and respectfully address women. The Hebrew word “gunai” has no exact equivalent in the English language; we used the translation “woman”, but it is better to translate it as “lady” which is more courteous.”  The answer of Jesus to Mary when she asked him to help with the wine, “What have I to do with you?”, was also a common conversational phrase.  One scholar puts it this way, “when it is uttered angrily and sharply, it did indicate complete disagreement and reproach, but when it is spoken gently it indicated not so much reproach but misunderstanding.  It means “don’t worry, you don’t quite understand what is going on; leave things to me, and I will help them in my own way.”  This is the reason why Mary immediately commanded the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
          We were told in Gospel that there were six stone water pots. According to the Jews, seven is the number of perfection and completeness, while six corresponds to imperfections and incompleteness. What this story tells us is that the beginning of the ministry of Christ, marked through this miracle, communicates that the Messiah is already here in our midst to fill what is lacking and who would transform the dullness and staleness of life into something vivid, sparkling and exciting. And, the amount of wine that was transformed, which according to scholars would be 180 gallons of wine since there were six water pots and each held between twenty and thirty
gallons of water, represents the superabundance of blessing that God is willing to bestow on us. John doesn’t want us to take this 180 gallons of wine with literal crudeness but, rather, to make us understand the magnanimity of God’s providence. Whatever is lacking in us right now, probably feeling down and desolate because of various problems that we are facing, feeling weary, tired, dull, and sort of lifeless because of the difficulties that we have been undergoing, remember that Christ can transform our lives into the best, the most exciting and gratifying life that we can ever have just like he transformed that stale and tasteless water into the best wine.
          It is amazing that the first miracle of Jesus was done in the simplicity of a family event, not in the midst of a large crowd where people would be in great awe and admiration. He did his first miracle in the confines of a family home.  He is a “domesticated God.”  This tells us how important our home is. The place that we say is the best place we can ever be, our home, can sometimes be a place where the worst of us can also be seen. Sometimes, one can be more impolite, discourteous, and unforgiving in a family home than in the outside world. At times even, the kind of solidarity and compassion that one could do to a stranger outside couldn’t be done in the confines of homes. But, for Jesus, home was a place for which nothing but his best was good enough.
          One of the realizations that we can discern from this story is that God is a God of joy. The fact that Jesus didn’t want the family to be embarrassed by having no wine to serve, we see that Christ doesn’t want us to spoil those joyous and special moments of our lives. He comes to the rescue when that joy is threatened. It’s about time to be transformed to the best wine that Christ can do for us, so that whenever people drink in the cup of our own life, they may say in the words of the headwaiter in the wedding feast at Cana, “this is the best wine that we’ve ever had”, because they experience God’s love. – Fr. Cary