Do whatever he tells you!

John 2:1-11

Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples were guests also. 3 When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus' mother told him, "They're just about out of wine." 4 Jesus said, "Is that any of our business, Mother--yours or mine? This isn't my time. Don't push me." 5 She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, "Whatever he tells you, do it." 6 Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty 7 Jesus ordered the servants, "Fill the pots with water." And they filled them to the brim. 8 "Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host," Jesus said, and they did. 9 When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn't know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom, 10 "Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you've saved the best till now!" 11 This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign / miracle Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Food for thought!

St John in his gospel mentions Mary, the mother of Jesus only two times: at the marriage feast at Cana, the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus and at the crucifixion, the end of it. That could be a way of telling us that Mary was actively involved in the ministry of Jesus; that she did not only give birth to Jesus, she also gave birth to his ministry. Mary is indeed mother of Jesus. 

The birth of Jesus’s ministry was at Cana, on a wedding. It is not a small thing that Jesus should begin his miracles at a beginning family; Jesus’s first miracle was saving a new family from shame and embarrassment.

Something curious: if this was Jesus' very first miracle, how then did Mary know that Jesus could do it, since Jesus had never done a miracle before? Well, good mothers know their children; they know the hidden talents and potentialities of their children. There are many young men and women who have gone on to accomplish great things in life because their mothers believed in them and encouraged them and “pushed” them into doing miracles like Mary did. The gospel says that the hesitating Jesus said to insisting Mary, “This isn't my time. Don't push me.” Mary pushed Jesus into performing the first miracle because nobody knew Jesus as much as her.

Another curious question is, Did Mary know all along that she was living with a miracle maker? If she did, why did she not ask Jesus to multiply her bread, turn the water on the dining table into wine, or double her money to make ends meet? How come that until the wedding at Cana she never asked Jesus to use his miraculous powers to help her out, after all charity begins at home!

The lesson is very clear. For Mary and Jesus the needs of others come first. Take the case of Jesus. He knew he had this power to perform miracles. After his forty days fast in the desert he was hungry and the devil suggested it to him to turn some stones into bread and eat, but he did not do it. Yet he went out and multiplied bread for crowds of his followers.

Both Mary and Jesus are teaching us a lesson that God's gifts to individuals are not meant primarily for them or their families' benefit but for the service of others. That is what St Paul also tells us in today’s second reading. Paul enumerates the many different gifts of the Holy Spirit to different persons and adds that "to each person is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good," (1 Corinthians 12:6) not for personal profit. For this reason, the gifts you have, your potential, your wealth is all given you for others; you are gifted in order to gift others; you are given in order to give to others.

Today, we must ask ourselves what we have done with all our gifts. Have we ever made difference in anyone's life? If you have a gifted child, do like Mary did: push him or her into helping others. Or if Jesus tells you to use your gifts in helping others, don’t hesitate. As Mary said, DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU!