The wedding feast at Cana

Picture the marriage feast of Cana. There our Blessed Lord is beyond the Jordan, gathering up his first disciples. Mary is already at the feast. The Lord comes with his new disciples, and Mary, who always knows our wants before we know them, says, “They have no wine.” They had water, the water of the Old Testament, but they had no wine. And Jesus replies, “Woman”–not mother–“Woman, what to me is to thee?” That is the way it is in the original. “My hour has not yet come.” The hour refers to his Passion and death, his combat with evil. Now he is equivalently saying to his Mother,“My dear Mother, you want me to begin my public life, to declare myself the Messiah and the Son of God.  Do you realize that the moment I do that, your relationship to me changes? You will then no longer be my Mother. You will then be the Mother of everyone whom I will redeem. You will be the universal Mother of all mankind. You will be the woman of Genesis. You will be the Mother of the living.” Mary’s heart must have burned at not hearing herself called “Mother.” So our Blessed Lord, it seems, anticipated his public life. It is not often that mothers send their sons to the battlefield. Mary did. If the Father sent the Son, the Mother would send the Son.