BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 8)
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – January 18, 2004
“The Sign of Cana”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 62:1-5 // I Cor 12:4-11 // Jn 2:1-11
When I heard this true story, I shuddered at the senselessness and viciousness of what had happened. A wedding feast was held in the town near our convent. The bridegroom’s party, which, in the Filipino tradition, is usually the one responsible for the expenses of the wedding banquet, provided what was necessary for the feast. But there were so many guests that the food and drink ran out. The bride’s relatives taunted the bridegroom for not having provided enough. The bridegroom “lost face” and was overwhelmed with shame (“hiya”). In the evening, they found the humiliated and tormented host hanging from a tree. He killed himself out of desperation and shame. What was meant to be a joyful event became a tragedy.
In light of this story, which took place in an Oriental context, it is easy to imagine how unfortunate and critical was the situation of the wedding party at Cana when the wine was running out. Harold Buetow comments: “To run out of wine at a wedding was more of a humiliation for the couple than it would be today. For one thing, hospitality in the East was a sacred duty; for another, running out of wine would show poor planning, or – worse - the couple’s lack of prosperity, which would mean the absence of God’s blessing.” In this distressing situation, Jesus Christ dramatically manifested the compassion and the saving power of God by changing water into wine, thus prefiguring the abundant joy and intense happiness of the messianic age that he would bring. At the wedding of Cana, there was a renewed epiphany of God’s love and mercy through the miraculous intervention of his beloved Servant - Son, fully consecrated to the realization of the divine redemptive plan.
The miracle performed by Jesus at the wedding in Cana has a profound paschal and eucharistic significance. According to the evangelist John: “Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him” (Jn 2:11). In the biblical world, a “sign” is the initial manifestation of the reality to which it points. The “sign” of water being changed into wine at the Cana wedding feast foretells the way in which Jesus would fulfill his messianic mission, namely, by shedding his blood on the cross, and the glory it would bring.
Adrien Nocent remarks on the sign motif and the eschatological significance of this narrative: “We should note, in this context, that the wedding at Cana took place ‘on the third day’ (Jn 2:1), that is, on the same day on which Christ later manifested his glory through his resurrection. This wedding feast, therefore, is the wedding feast of the triumphant Christ who came among us and showed the glory that he acquired by shedding his blood and that is still present among us in the Eucharist. He will give us a share in that glory at the wedding feast that is the eschatological banquet at the end of time, when he shall bring all together in love.”
Indeed, the victorious paschal sign of Cana continues in the sacrament of the Eucharist. According to the 5th century musician, Romanus, the Melodist: “When Christ changed the water into wine by his power, the crowd rejoiced, delighting in the taste of this wine. Today, it is at the banquet of the Church that we are all seated, for the wine is changed into the blood of Christ, and we drink it with blessed joy, glorifying the great bridegroom. For the true bridegroom is the son of Mary, the Word for all eternity, who has taken the form of a slave and who created all in his wisdom.”
The sign of Cana was marked with the presence of the “woman” of faith, Mary, the mother of Jesus. According to the evangelist John, at the wedding of Cana, there was the mother of Jesus (Jn 2:1). Mary discreetly and intuitively presented the dire situation to Jesus, evoking from him the “first sign” of salvation. John narrates only two Marian episodes in his Gospel account: Mary at the wedding of Cana (Jn 2:1-11) and Mary at the foot of the cross (Jn 19:25-26). According to the authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 6: “Mary’s presence at the beginning and end of this uninterrupted course of events has, therefore, great symbolic meaning. Her intervention at Cana expresses the urgency of the people of the new era, who are impatient to see Christ’s glory. Standing at the foot of the cross, she is the symbol of the Church, which recognizes, in the crucified Christ, the Son glorified by the Father, and adores him in silence. This woman thus appears as the perfect model of the believer: ‘Blessed are you who believed!’ (Lk 1:45).” Indeed, through Mary’s active role in bringing about the sign of Cana, the disciples of Jesus began to believe in him.
How does the “sign of Cana” impinge on our faith? Do we see in it the renewed epiphany of God’s love and the revelation of the glory of Christ in the totality of his death and exaltation?
When we are experiencing the poverty of having “no more wine” of gladness in our life, what do we do? Do we turn to Christ, the source of eucharistic wine and messianic joy?
At Cana, Mary became the “woman” of victory over evil and at the foot of the cross, she became the “woman” who nurtures the Church. Do we imitate Mary, the image of the Church, straining to see the realization of the messianic promises and an active collaborator in the fulfillment of God’s saving plan?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Lord Jesus, Bridegroom of the Church,
at the wedding of Cana you changed water into wine
and gave us a “sign” of your paschal destiny and glory.
Look kindly on our poverty
and be mindful of our concerned cry,
“We have no wine!”
Fill us with the sparkling wine of joy
that comes from your bounty and self-sacrificing love.
As the gracious Master of the eucharistic feast of the Church,
increase in us the resolve
to share intimately in the messianic banquet
which presupposes a new world, a new wine, a new love,
and the new people of God made one in the joy of the kingdom.
We love you and adore you
for you have prepared for us
the eucharistic banquet of joy-giving wine and life-giving bread.
You live and reign forever and ever.
Assembly: Amen.
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.” (Jn 2:11)
ACTION PLAN: When the priest elevates the consecrated wine at the Mass, make a conscious act of adoration and be mindful of what St. Ephraim proclaimed: “All earthly joys come together in wine; all of salvation is joined in the mystery of his blood.”
ACTION PLAN: Pray for engaged couples participating in pre-Cana formative activities and those who will be married today.
Prepared by: Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM