Sunday Meditation: The Bridegroom at Cana

On the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year C we get the Sign of the Wedding Feast at Cana.  I purposely titled this post “The Bridegroom at Cana” because it seems to me that the bridegroom of the actual wedding is transposed by the Eternal Bridegroom.  Here Jesus performs the miracle—called a “sign” by the John Evangelist—of transforming water into wine when at the wedding they are attending in the nearby village of Cana the wine has run out.  Notice how the headwaiter gives credit to the bridegroom for the good wine but in actuality it was the Bridegroom who provided the gift.

 

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,

and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

When the wine ran short,

the mother of Jesus said to him,

“They have no wine.”

And Jesus said to her,

“Woman, how does your concern affect me?

My hour has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servers,

“Do whatever he tells you.”

Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,

each holding twenty to thirty gallons.

Jesus told them,

“Fill the jars with water.”

So they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them,

“Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.”

So they took it.

And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,

without knowing where it came from

— although the servers who had drawn the water knew —,

the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,

“Everyone serves good wine first,

and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;

but you have kept the good wine until now.”

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 2:1-11

Fr. Terrance Chartier of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate provides a profound homily on the meaning of this miracle.  He gives us observations I never realized here and I will bet you haven’t either. 

I think the world of Fr. Terrance.  Have you ever connected the Wedding Feast at Cana with the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in the Book of Revelation?  I haven’t.  The observation of the imperfect number six of the jars leads one to connect the wine as the fulfillment of water as Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. 

Fr. Patrick Briscoe O.P. of Our Sunday Visitor gives a wonderful pastoral homily

 

 

With confidence, let us turn to our Blessed Mother for the hope we have in Christ, the Bridegroom.

 

Sunday Meditation: “The headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one.”

 

No hymn this week, but the video clip from the episode on the Wedding Feast at Cana from The Chosen.

 

 

Perhaps not the best exegesis of the Gospel passage, but well done nonetheless.