Woman

“Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5).

Wedding Feast at Canan (Icon)

I have always loved the story of the Wedding Feat at Canan.

Perhaps it is because it outlines a time when Christ stopped to listen to His Holy Mother and after a discussion with her made a decision to act in a way that would help people who were dear to her?  Or perhaps it was because it was such a human problem?  After all, in the scheme of things, running out of food or drink at a wedding was surely only an embarrassment (albeit a big one for that family but certainly not a devastating life event)?  Perhaps it is because in this excerpt of Scripture, we hear the voice of the Blessed Virgin for the very last time?  Never again in the Gospels does the Blessed Virgin speak…

Whatever the reason, it is clear that in my mind, the Wedding Feast of Canan is a particularly moving to me…

“On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.  And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.  When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:1-11).

The other day I heard a talk by Venerable Fulton Sheen, and in it he spoke about the word that Christ used to address His mother, when she made her request…  He said… WOMAN.  And the implication of using that word is that Christ was telling His Blessed Mother, that if He acted now, He would bring about the final stage of His Human Life and this would mean not only that He would suffer and die, but that the Blessed Virgin would trade her Motherhood of Christ for the Motherhood of all the sinners of the world.

And He was waiting for the response of the Blessed Virgin, because from that moment onwards, she would also share in the suffering of His Cross…  And her response was “Do whatever he tells you.”

And I have been thinking about that today.  For there is such beauty in the suffering of the WOMAN…  Such heartbreaking beauty…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.