In many modern states there is legislation regulating the rights and duties of those committed to the bonds of marriage. Rules for the functioning of this natural institution must be specified, even though the institution is limited in its requirements and cannot confront all the problems that arise in family and matrimonial life.

Matrimony is an occasion for celebration, and more in particular for a banquet. In Cana, there was no lack of joy for the festive occasion and the banquet was provided with plenty of wine. At this banquet Mary was also present: "Jesus’ mother was there" (John 2,1). She may have been invited to the wedding to help serve, which would explain why she noticed that the wine had run out and worried about solving this problem. The families of the bride and groom were poor, and had been unable to buy enough wine to last for the wedding feasts which lasted eight days.

"Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding". They were invited because Mary was present. Since Jesus was in the area it was worth inviting Him so He could see His mother, and it was also worth inviting the disciples. In this episode Mary appears as she who introduced Jesus to the wedding banquet.

When she turns to her son saying: "They have no wine" which exposed a dramatic situation, she is symbolically representing a marriage with problems. When there is no wine the banquet cannot continue, the marriage risked ending in a shameful manner.

The trust that animated Mary in requesting a miracle faced considerable resistance. The word pronounced at this time, seem quite hard: "Woman, why do you trouble me with that? My time has not yet come".

Jesus does not call Mary "mother" but "woman". The word "woman" is full of respect and consideration, but does establish a certain distance in relations between mother and son.

This distance is confirmed by the expression: "Why do you trouble me with that?" These words indicate an existing separation and allude to the separation that took place when Jesus left His mother in Nazareth to embark on His preaching mission. After this departure Jesus acted more independently and was less tied to Mary’s wishes.

‘My time has not yet come’ has at times been identified as the hour of the Passion, but the entire context favours instead the moment of the first miracle; this moment had been specifically determined by the Father. The first miracle is particularly important because it reveals Jesus’ divine omnipotence and reveals the sovereignty He has and also exercised in fulfilling His redeeming mission.

The objections clearly presented by Jesus to his mother’s request might well have discouraged her; especially the words about His time not yet having come, which appeared to exclude any miraculous intervention. We can understand that the wedding in Cana did not provide a very favourable occasion for a miracle. It is understandable that the Father might have chosen a more important event for the first miracle than providing wine for a banquet. So much poverty led one to expect a charitable miracle. Witnesses would have been very appreciative if one of these poverties had been the object of intervention.

But Mary did not give up. She understood that Jesus’ words allowed her to persevere in her plan, there were no limitations to His omnipotence. She did not answer her Son but turned to the servants to confirm she was expecting a miracle. Her recommendation to the servants has often been translated as "Do whatever He tells you" (John 2,5). But a precise translation reads: "Whatever He may ask of you, do it". Mary waits for Jesus to give an order that might seem strange to the servants, the order for a miracle; she fears the servants might be surprised and hesitate. So she recommends loyalty and obedience. She obtains what she wishes, because when Jesus says: "Fill the water-pots with water", the servants fill them to the brim. Hence Mary’s intervention obtained the maximum amount of wine for the banquet.

The faithful execution of the order given by Jesus proved its effectiveness. The episode reveals the "glory" of Christ, this glory which was particularly wished for by Mary. John the evangelist emphasises that this event marked the beginning of signs and miracles, and the beginning of adhesion to the faith for the disciples: Jesus "revealed his glory and His disciples believed in Him".

The amount of wine provided by Christ better indicates the extent of this miracle: the six jars filled to the brim indicate the divine intention to answer Mary’s request with generosity that touched on extreme abundance. Furthermore, the quantity did not damage the quality noted by the master of the feast who said to the groom: "Thou has kept the good wine until now" (2,10).

The presence of Christ

In this beginning represented by the wonderful events in Cana, we are provided with a light for understanding Jesus’ intention of making marriage a sacrament. The starting point is the same as for many marriages in this world. They are threatened, as Mary says, "they have no more wine". At times the threat already appears on the wedding day. The urgency for intervention from above is clear.

This help is possible because there is an element even more important than the disastrous wedding situation: the presence of Christ. He was not supposed to be present because involved in a preaching mission with His disciples that was to take Him to many places. But His plans were upset by the presence of His mother who having been invited to the wedding feast ensured that her son was also invited. The meeting between the mother and the son is significant; they were supposed to be separated, since Jesus had left His mother to devote Himself to the great work of founding the Kingdom of God. It was thanks to a superior divine plan that Jesus was present at the wedding feast with His disciples.

This presence opens the path for many possible solutions for the problem caused by the lack of wine. All these solutions become accessible with the personal presence of Christ, a presence that is provided with divine omnipotence and He can use it as He wishes. It is enough to know that He is among the wedding guests to be sure of an excellent solution.

Mary herself was unaware of which solution would be provided for the problem; the statement that the time for the first miracle had not yet come made Jesus’ choice even more obscure and mysterious. It meant that according to the father’s previous plans the Cana wedding feast was not supposed to be the place for the first miracle. But Mary also believed in the omnipotence of her Son who could obtain all favours from the Father, including a change in the circumstances foreseen for the miracle. The recommendation addressed at the servants proves that Mary hoped for a change of this kind if it was necessary for obtaining the wine.

So in this episode we observe that the mother’s faith in Jesus played a fundamental role. It was this faith that inspired the initiative of requesting her Son’s intervention, and more in particular the daring of wanting a miracle when Jesus had not yet performed any other miracles. Mary did not allow herself to be distracted from her objective when she heard the serious objections formulated by Jesus Himself, especially when she was told that the time for a miracle had not yet come, a time that remained the Father’s absolute prerogative. Mary persevered in her request, although aware that her daring increased. She fully acknowledged the Father’s sovereign authority and never disobeyed at all, although in fact she was asking the Father to make a decision in conformity with her wishes.

Had He decided differently, Mary would have accepted this without recrimination, without any show of bad temper, because she wished to remain open and docile to all divine wishes. But this decision had not exactly been taken yet when the mother talked to her Son and listened to His objections. Mary could therefore persevere in her plans and request the miracle she wished for with greater insistence. She knew her Son and she thought she had a chance of obtaining satisfaction.

Not only Jesus had not opposed his mother’s request with an opposite will of the Father, but there was an important reason for hoping her prayer would be answered. It was a request in favour of the poor. The fact that Mary had come to this wedding probably because the people were poor and in need of help. The bride and groom had been unable to buy enough wine for the banquet. A wedding banquet lasting several days needed a considerable quantity of wine. We must suppose that poverty had prevented the bride and groom from providing this amount.

The disastrous situation in Cana is a drama of poverty. Mary was particularly sensitive to poverty that prevented the bride and groom and their guests from celebrating the wedding in a worthy manner. Since Jesus was always moved by the misery of the poor, we are able to understand how he was particularly ready to answer his mother’s request in Cana.

The transformation

With the presence of Christ, the complete transformation of the situation is possible.

This transformation must be understood within the perspective of sacramental life and the sacrament of matrimony.

A first sign of this transformation is provided in this evangelical episode by the presence of the water-pots that assume a new meaning.

"There were six water-pots standing there, as the Jewish custom of ceremonial washing demanded, each containing about one hundred litres. And Jesus said to them: "Fill the water-pots with water", and they filled them to the brim"(2,6-7).

The water-pots receive a new destination: they were destined for purification rituals; they are now destined to be filled with Eucharistic wine. This is a profound transformation, no longer placing the accent on ritual purity but on the communication of divine life that is fulfilled with the Eucharist.

As the Council states in Gaudium et Spes (49), "This love God has judged worthy of special gifts, healing, perfecting and exalting gifts of grace and of charity. Such love, merging the human with the divine, leads the spouses to a free and mutual gift of themselves, a gift providing itself by gentle affection and by deed, such love pervades the whole of their lives:(11) indeed by its busy generosity it grows better and grows greater. Therefore it far excels mere erotic inclination, which, selfishly pursued, soon enough fades wretchedly away". Within the framework of this meditation, the distance between love and eroticism must always be emphasised. Eroticism is a search for ones own advantages or ones own pleasure, while love is concerned with the good of others. The Council observes that "Many men of our own age also highly regard true love between husband and wife as it manifests itself in a variety of ways depending on the worthy customs of various peoples and times. This love is an eminently human one since it is directed from one person to another through an affection of the will; it involves the good of the whole person, and therefore can enrich the expressions of body and mind with a unique dignity, ennobling these expressions as special ingredients and signs of the friendship distinctive of marriage" (49). In this mutual love the sacrament of matrimony requires two fundamental characteristics, stated by Christ, unity and indissolubility. In the Old Alliance, a husband was able to repudiate his wife; Jesus, in providing His grace to marriage as a sacrament, wished it to be indissoluble. This is the grace Christian wedded people rely on for a life worthy of the sacrament. "The constant fulfilment of the duties of this Christian vocation demands notable virtue. For this reason, strengthened by grace for holiness of life, the couple will painstakingly cultivate and pray for steadiness of love, large heartedness and the spirit of sacrifice." (GS 49). With the institution of the sacrament of matrimony, Christ obtained for married life the greatest divine help. He made it a solid reference point for Christian life and the development of the Church.

For the revelation of this sanctification of marriage, we have considered the evangelical episode of the wedding in Cana as the starting point. It is an episode that immerses us in current matters; many marriages are obliged to confront problems that often seem insurmountable. To remedy this it is necessary to find a new source of wine, hence a new source of love. This source exists: it is Christ; He who led us to understand that he would release "rivers of pure water" allows these rivers to flow to develop sacramental life within the Church, and in a more singular manner matrimonial life.

With the sacrament of matrimony, Christ provides new wine in abundance to increase the love that joins the married couple and multiply their spiritual strength: hence He makes them capable of fully accomplishing their mission within the family and within the Church.

The sacrament plays a dynamic role, not only does it work as a ritual, but as a life that develops. We can add a complement that comes from Paul: not only does Christ work, but with Him so does the Church. "Those words are a high mystery, and I am applying them here to Christ and His Church"(Eph 5,32).