Fr. Simon Sleeman. John loved weddings – early in his gospel we have the wedding in Cana and in his last book, the Book of Revelation, he ends talking about the ‘marriage of the lamb.’ There are eighty eight weddings in the bible if you include Adam and Eve.
Today, John gives us a report on the wedding in Cana of Galilee – tells us that Jesus was there with his Mother and a few friends, no sign of Joseph. And he tells us they ran out of wine. Jesus, after some persuasion by his Mother, turns six stone jars of water into the finest wine – the guests were none the wiser – but Mary, Jesus and the servants knew. No fanfare, no three cheers for the wine maker. Just a line saying – this was Jesus’ first sign, revealing his glory.
I find this account a bit thin – it has none of the details I want.
Compare to this to the Examiner’s, ‘Wedding of the Week’, on a Saturday. “There was a wedding in Killorglin, Co.Kerry. Kathleen with a K and Kevin were the bride and groom. The bride looked super elegant in a ‘Prea James’ dress and the groom was stylish, thanks to Massimo menswear. Paradise Flowers created the floral arrangements. The Jugglers, arrived from Galway and set the toes tapping. …The bride said, ‘Our wedding was like something out of a movie, the weather was amazing. The ceremony was very emotional and both mothers were in tears and the wine flowed.”
Now that’s more like it! We get the scene…no shortage of wine here and mothers in tears…
If you were assigned to cover that wedding in Cana and came back with John’s report, I can imagine the editor saying, ‘listen, I have work to do, a paper to produce, people to see. Get real. Give me a report I CAN PUBLISH, that PEOPLE WILL READ.’
And yet John’s version has lasted 2000 years….why? what was John up to? …can we mine some meaning from his report?
You could look it as an interlude between the heady opening to his gospel and the unsavoury business of cleansing the Temple. I don’t think it was a filler.
He was/is trying tell us a truth; something that has existed since the beginning, that we have heard and we have seen, that we have touched with our hands, the Word who is life…but telling it slant – in a miracle – the quiet operations of grace – in the background – in an abundance of wine.
Isaiah, the prophet, told people to watch out for an abundance of wine. It would be a sure sign the Messiah had come..
Grace, miracles, God in action – we are not used to this …we are not used to living by invisibles. ‘Listen, I am busy’ …the editor comes back at you, ‘I have a deadline to meet, photographers to see….I don’t need this. I’ll settle for water. For being my own god. The snake promised I could do it’ – ‘you will be like God’ (Gen 3:5).
The editor didn’t want miracles – we don’t want miracles – they disturb us – they break open the reality we thought we understood, give us a glimpse of the ‘more’ of life – THE WORD – they disrupt routine, break through the superficial – the dress, the hats, the flowers. We are not in control of things…sometimes it takes a miracle to get in behind – and crush the grapes.
So there is something more. And loads of it…more wine than you could drink…the larger world of God – the world of grace – glimpsed – a world where the priority is not to get the facts but to obey – follow him. It is hard to believe there is someone greater than me here – even if he can turn water into wine or wine into blood.
Life is probably easier for the editor, go it alone – live in a small, controlled, miracle-less world…where you are god.
For us, who were neither in Cana or Killorglin but are here, in Murroe, this morning, not expecting miracles, the invitation stands… to open ourselves – just a crack – to the quiet operations of grace.
The invitation stands …to fill, maybe, just one stone jar with whatever needs changing in my life – pain, sadness, sin …and ask humbly …that it be changed.
The invitation stands to become the finest of wine – holy and divine… The key – ‘do whatever he tells you’…