Father Tim Lemlin
The Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) record Jesus using a parable about a wedding feast to reveal his perspective of God. It seems to me that the gospel writer, John, uses the occasion of the wedding that happens in Cana of Galilee to do the same thing. Both the parables (which are presented toward the end of Jesus' public ministry) and the wedding at Cana (which happens at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry) focus upon the extravagance of God. This theme is also acclaimed by the prophet Isaiah in our first reading today. God's generosity is universal. It can't be silenced. It shouts aloud God's love of Israel, which vindicates (removes) Israel's many sins. This love is called forth by Israel's wretched state. God can't stand to see Israel so unhappy - an unhappiness caused by Israel's choice to be separate from God. (Another word for this choice to separate ourselves from God is sin.)
Unlike today when many of us have access to entertainment, the people of Jesus' time had very little, if any, access to entertainment. It was the custom therefore on special occasions to have a feast. Usually the invited guests were the peers of the one holding the feast. When the invited guests belonged to a lower social bracket than the one holding the feast, the one having the feast wouldn't eat with the guests. This might sound strange to us but to eat with an invited guest was to identify oneself with the social status of the guest.
We might begin to understand now why the church leaders and elders of the people are so scandalized by Jesus' choice - repeated many times - to eat with sinners, those shunned by Jesus' church and society. Jesus, by eating with outcasts, becomes an outcast. Jesus' choice to eat with sinners is captured by God's extravagance in Isaiah. God can't stand being separated from us, so God decides not only to eat with us, God decides to become one of us. God becomes human. God, in the sense that we have been speaking, dishonors God's name. God lowers God-self to our level. God becomes identified with us. God, in Jesus, as St. Paul says numerous times, becomes sin.
The extravagance of God doesn't end here. God also transforms who we understand ourselves to be into who we really are: sons and daughters of God. The action of Jesus at Cana is the same action of God.
The six stone water jars are used by the guests at the wedding to ritually purify themselves before they enter into the celebration. The jars are symbolic of the laws used by the Jewish people (and us) to justify ourselves before God and others. The fact that the wine runs out is another symbol. Wine is symbolic of happiness. Jesus' message is clear: we can't justify ourselves and the happiness that we try to glean from things and achievements soon dries up. Justification is a gift from God. Happiness is a gift only found in God. Hence the stone jars in John's gospel are empty and the wine runs out. The stone water jars are of no use. Our ability to supply happiness dries up.
The gospel writer then does something that clearly states God's intention. Jesus tells the servants to re-fill these jars with water. The water is then transformed into wine. What is impossible for us, God makes possible. The sorrow that comes from our choice to rely upon ourselves is transformed into the joy of God acting in our lives.
This is who God is, Jesus and the gospel writers tell us. Our participation in this transformation is simply choosing to allow that which is unconscious to become conscious. Many of us operate on an unconscious level most of the time. We don't act, we react; and the reaction is so embedded within us that we are most often unaware that we have a choice to act in any other way. We are addicted to our unconscious reactions. The way out of an unconscious addiction that dictates how we live is through the process of bringing to consciousness that which is unconscious. This is the purpose of prayer.
Mary tells the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." This might mean, "Listen to him." The thing that God tells us most often in the scriptures is to "shut up." Stillness and silence do not come easily to us. We are surrounded by noise externally and internally. Yet if we choose to try to be still and silent our choice will allow God to act. We will see our emptiness. We will see that our need for happiness can't be satiated by wife, husband, job, prestige, or success. We will see how we are continually creating dramas (we might rant and rage at anyone who causes us some inconvenience, for example) to make our lives feel important.
Nothing, nothing, nothing can make us worthy or give us lasting happiness, St. John of the Cross tells us. That which is impossible for us God makes possible. God transforms us from people who are unconsciously addicted to our reactions, to people who are recovering consciously from our addictions. That allows us from time to time the freedom to act consciously. It is only when we are free to act, and act consciously, that we are able to love, to be who we are.
