Chapter
22
by Fr. Thomas Keating
The Wedding Feast at Cana
Second Sunday after Epiphany
On the third day there was a wedding in
Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples
had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of
Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her,
"Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet
come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells
you." Now standing there were six stone water jars 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 chief steward."
So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and
did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water
knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone
serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have
become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." Jesus did this,
the first of signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his
disciples believed in him.
After this he went down to Capernaum with
his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there a few
days. (John 2:1-12)
The baptism of Jesus
signifies his oneness with humanity. The miracle of changing the water into wine
at the marriage feast of Cana signifies our transformation into Christ. This is
the divine project begun in Advent and brought to completion in the threefold
feast of Epiphany. God becomes fully human so that we may become divinized.
We are invited to
look at the final panel of the triptych of the three events that comprise the
feast of the Epiphany: the coming of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus in the
Jordan, and the marriage feast of Cana. The marriage feast of Cana is the piece
that brings all the rest of the Christmas celebrations to final completion. The
divine light that drenched us on Christmas night, and which we have been
gradually adjusting to, now reveals the whole panorama of the divine plan of
salvation. The human condition, with its brokenness and sinfulness, is wiped out
in the divine transformation of human nature, which this panel of the triptych
not only reveals, but communicates to us.
There are three ways
in which we grasp the meaning of the liturgical handling of the gospel texts.
The first is the historical meaning--what actually happened. The second is the
significance of what happened. This is usually expressed in the intention, if we
can perceive it, of the inspired author. Finally, there is the existential
meaning of the feast. That is, what it means in my life.
The feast of the
Epiphany focused on the coming of the Magi, the symbol of seekers of all time,
finding the truth they sought in a most unlikely place--in the face of an infant
who could not even talk. The Magi represent the call of the whole human race to
faith in the infinite mercy of God expressed in the Word made flesh--flesh in
its most fragile form.
The baptism of Jesus
in the Jordan is the symbol of purification. He himself did not need the
purification but by uniting himself with a human nature and submitting to John's
baptism of repentance, Jesus revealed that God is in total solidarity with the
human condition just as it is. In other words, Christ is with us in our
tragedies, in our sorrows, in our joys, and in our sinfulness to heal all our
wounds through the process of the spiritual journey: the sacraments, prayer, and
the divine therapy of contemplation.
Here we are looking
at a further revelation. It is set in the context of a wedding and described by
John the Evangelist as Jesus' first miracle. "There were the six stone
water jars for the Jewish rites of purification." Six is the allegorical
number of imperfection in the Old Testament. The six water jars symbolize for
John fallen human nature, the old creation that emerged out of the waters of
chaos.
What is the sacred
writer trying to convey in recounting the miraculous change of water contained
in these six jars into wine? In another passage John states that John the
Baptist baptized with water, but Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit. Wine with
its sparkling, heady, inebriating character symbolizes the Spirit.
Human nature is to
be transformed into what wine symbolizes--namely, the Spirit. Notice that the
miracle does not annihilate but transforms the water. The wine is not something
entirely new; it is a transformation of what was there before. Similarly, our
human nature, our personal history, and our self-identity are not annihilated
but transformed.
The weddings in
Palestine took three days. No wonder the wine ran out? The mother of Jesus was
an observant householder and said to Jesus, "They have run out of
wine." To which he replied, equivalently, "So what?" John the
Evangelist had been a disciple of John the Baptist, who was the great ascetic.
It may not have seemed appropriate to the sacred writers that Jesus should
perform his first miracle in favor of providing an enormous amount of a
substance that John the Baptist would never thing of touching.
In any case, the
text states that Jesus acquiesced to his mother's concern and changed water into
wine. The new wine was brought to the head waiter. He calls over the young man
and says, "Everybody serves the best vintage first and after the guests
have gotten a little groggy, then they bring out the stuff that's not so hot.
But you, dear sir, have saved the best wine until now!"
The miracle implies
that the new wine that Jesus provides will never run out. It is also a new
creation. The old creation, with its burden of sin is erased, and the new
creation, the action of the Spirit, is now available. The new creation is the
kingdom of God. And what is the entrance fee? Only the consent of faith. The
inherent energy of this wine, strong because it comes from God, will enable us,
little by little, to overcome our compulsions, addictions, and sinfulness.
Having become one with us in our fallen human nature, Jesus transforms our
fallen nature into his divinity.
This is what the
liturgy proclaims in this feast. We come to this wedding as guests and we leave
as brides. Not a bad exchange, especially if we come as rather disreputable
guests. It is the moment in which we understand what it means to be in
Christ (a favorite term of Paul for incorporation in Christ). The church, that
is the people of God, is the extension of Jesus Christ in time. We are the
repository of the new wine. We can give to others the old water--our
personality, limitations, compulsions, whatever we come to the services with. Or
we can give them the sparkling, heady, inebriating wine of sober intoxication.
This is the wedding that is now going on but at a level that is not immediately
apparent to us until we penetrate by grace and experience the significance of
the event.
Wine represents the
energy of the Spirit. It is power, but in the service of love. It is too strong
to stay in a bottle or in a particular structure. It has to have the freedom to
move around and to adjust to circumstances. In this connection, Jesus commanded,
"Put new wine into new bottles." The old ones may not be able to
contain the chemicals that are being processed in the new wine, whose immense
vitality in this case we can only suspect. The one who changed water into wine
is even now transforming us into himself through the Eucharist.
More information can be obtained by reading the
book The Kingdom of God is Like . . .by Fr. Thomas Keating. It is offered
in our Book
Store.
