Three days after the promise made to Nathanael and therefore seven days after the testimony given at Bethany (1, 28), the first sign of Jesus is placed in the frame of a wedding at Cana in Galilee. If in Baptism it is the Father who reveals the mystery of Jesus as Son, at the wedding at Cana it is the mother who sensitizes the child to the need of these two spouses who risk seeing their feast ruined. Did the spouses make a mistake in calculating the wine by giving in to thrift or did the guests indulge too much in joy? We do not know! The fact is that the situation becomes delicate and the mother of Jesus realizes it before all the others: (2, 3). The Gospel thus opens with a week that ends, on the seventh day, with the first and emblematic manifestation of the glory of Jesus. The Lord fulfills the promise of the prophet and presents himself as the true husband of humanity who can no longer be considered or feeling Abandoned, but, on the contrary, Married. The diadem of which Isaiah speaks becomes for Paul the feared crown of multiple, different, and equally precious pearls: the grace of the various charisms and ministries that shine in the mystery of the Church and in the journey of humanity animated by the same and unique Spirit. The abundance and excellence of the wine served at Cana represents for John the key to reading the whole journey of Jesus who came to give humanity the fullness of lasting joy. The mother of Jesus appears only here in the Gospel of John to reappear – in absolute silence – under the cross next to her beloved disciple. There, the wine will turn into donated blood as a sign of an excess of love and dedication of which our every care for the joy of the other is a luminous reflection.

Commentary by b. Michael David, osb Community of the Koinonia de la Visitation

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey