As we return to the Ordinary Time of the Church’s Year, we hear this weekend from the second chapter of St. John’s Gospel – the account of the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. As strange as it may sound, St. John’s account of the events in Cana is not about marriage or weddings or families. The principal characters are not even the bride and groom. His account is really about wine and a feast. What we see here in chapter 2 is what God had planned by coming to be with us – there is always a connection to Christmas!
St. John calls this episode the first of the “signs” which Jesus performed, he never uses the word “miracles.” In fact, he declares that these are all “signs of things to come.” So, of what is this moment in Cana a “sign?”
Well, it is helpful to remember that the people living at that time did not drink water – they washed in it. They didn’t have bottled water or sodas or punch, they drank wine and it sustained their lives. But St. John tells us that what sustains them has run out. In other words, they are lifeless, there is no joy, there is no excitement, no laughter, no anticipation of good things to come. A wedding without wine back then was an empty ritual without any passion. It was dead. Then God came along in the person of Jesus Christ. His presence and the miracle (even if St. John won’t bring himself to use the word), are signs that the Lord is capable of making everything new – everything!
The empty jars are like empty hearts and empty lives. So, Jesus says, fill them up. And the good news is that they obeyed, and best of all, they filled them to the brim! That’s the way to respond to what God asks. No half-hearted reluctance, no half-done response. Go all the way, they are told, and look at what happens when they do … look at what happens when we do.