Sunday/Cana

Sunday/Cana

Today's gospel is The Marriage at Cana, a truly funny story. Christ is at a wedding where they run out of wine. His mother prods him to intervene. He says 'my time has not yet come,' and she ignores him, telling the servants to do what he says.

We don't know much about Christ's young life but, after the Annunciation, Mary certainly knew something really big was going on. Did he cut onions from across the room? Did neighbors bring him wounds and fractures? Was he impossible to wrestle with? You get the impression that Christ is having moments with his mother saying, "Aw, mom, I can't do that. Not yet."

The subtlety here is there is a plan, a blueprint laid out for Christ to follow and develop. Divine plans, for the religious, at least, should be very reassuring. But it also is true that the plan is not written in stone. People count.

The next point is that his mother ignored his protests. And she knew he would accommodate her, and the family. I have little knowledge of comparative religions but I'll bet human beings rewarded for ignoring the Godhead in religious literature is rare. What are we to make of this? The power of intercession? A wry, beleaguered God? Maybe a more tender and intimate God than expected. It certainly puts Mary in a different light.

The third point is the wine was good. Quality was emphasized. In the vast cosmos, that's a human element. It always seems that this moment in the gospel, Christ steps away from humanity to do a 'trick' when most of the event is as human as Christ gets.