reading jn 2: 1-11

On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast.” So they took it.

When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Consideration

Mary is present at Cana in Galilee as the Mother of Jesus, and in a significant way she contributes to that “beginning of the signs” which reveal the messianic power of her Son. We read: “When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her. ‘O woman. what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.’” In John’s Gospel that “hour” means the time appointed by the Father when the Son accomplishes his task and is to be glorified (cf. Jn 7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1; 19:27). Even though Jesus’ reply to his mother sounds like a refusal (especially if we consider the blunt statement “My hour has not yet come” rather than the question), Mary nevertheless turns to the servants and says to them: “Do whatever he tells you.” Then Jesus orders the servants to fill the stone jars with water, and the water becomes wine, better than the wine which has previously been served to the wedding guests.

. . . [I]n this passage of John's Gospel we find as it were a first manifestation of the truth concerning Mary's maternal care. This truth has also found expression in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council ...“Mary's maternal function towards mankind in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its efficacy,” because “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”(1 Tim 2: 5) . . .. [T]he episode at Cana in Galilee offers us a sort of first announcement of Mary's mediation, wholly oriented towards Christ and tending to the revelation of his salvific power.

From the text of John it is evident that it is a mediation which is maternal. As the Council proclaims: Mary became “a mother to us in the order of grace.” This motherhood in the order of grace flows from her divine motherhood. Because she was, by the design of divine Providence, the mother who nourished the divine Redeemer, Mary became “an associate of unique nobility, and the Lord’s humble handmaid,” who “cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls.” And “this maternity of Mary in the order of grace. . .will last without interruption until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect.”

Here the Rosary and the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary may be recited or the following concluding prayer may be said.

Concluding Prayer

Lord God, you have prepared a worthy dwelling place for your Son by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin; grant, we pray, that as you preserved her from all stain of sin in your foreknowledge of His death, so we, by her intercession, may come to you with pure hearts.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.