Beloved of the Bridegroom

The Miracle at the Wedding at Cana (1693) by Nicolás Correa

For most of us, Christmas probably feels like a distant memory. The trees have come down, the gifts we gave and received have been well used at this point, and the better part of the first month of the new year is past.

And yet, the afterglow of those celebrations remains with us in certain ways. In a few weeks, we will commemorate what used to be the end of the Christmas season, Candlemas, or the Feast of Jesus’s Presentation in the Temple, which occurs forty days after December 25, or February 2. And while the contemporary liturgical calendar now has us back in Ordinary Time, historically this period used to be known as Epiphany-tide, a season that continued the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany, which we observed two weeks ago. The word “epiphany” means “manifestation” or “revelation” – the idea being that in Jesus God has made himself and his power known to us. Three events in the life of Jesus are associated with the celebration of the Epiphany. The first is the adoration of the Magi, the Gentiles who come to worship the newborn Jewish king, who is also God-in-the-Flesh. The second is the baptism of Jesus, when it is revealed that he is the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, upon whom the Holy Spirit rests.

The third and final event connected with the Epiphany is the story that we hear today from the Gospel of John. The changing of water into wine is certainly miraculous, but it might seem fairly pedestrian compared to some of Jesus’s more astounding works of healing the sick, feeding the thousands, and raising the dead to life. Why is this the first miracle that Jesus performed? Was it simply because his mother asked to him, and because he was a dutiful son? Or is there something more going on?

We get a hint of the answer in the first reading from Isaiah. Through the Prophet’s promise, God gives words of comfort and hope – that he will restore to glory Jerusalem, the city that personified the Jewish people, the city in which God himself dwelled. Following upon the Babylonian exile, and all of the mourning and misery that came with it, God assures his people that he will restore them to glory. Isaiah uses the language of love to signify just how much God means this. His commitment to his people is total, his love for them absolute – as much as a bridegroom is devoted to his bride, God is faithful to those whom he has chosen.

If there is one idea that we have been recalling over and over the last several weeks, it is that Jesus is – in himself – the fulfillment of Isaiah’s promise, and indeed all of God’s promises to mankind. Returning to the Gospel, we can see that it is no mere coincidence that Jesus’s first miracle takes place at a wedding. His very presence – in the scene at Cana, or in the human experience as a whole – is transformative, because in him, God has joined himself to us. In Jesus, God has wed his people. In this symbolic reading of the story, the transformation of water into wine is not just a way for the wedding party to continue – it’s a way to understand how the coming of Christ, the presence of Jesus with us, proves God’s love and faithfulness has been fulfilled. This miracle stands at the head of John’s Gospel because in a sense it contextualizes how everything that Jesus does and is – all of that healing the sick, feeding the thousands, raising the dead to life – are part of God’s work of restoring his people to himself.

We too are part of that restorative work. In the Gospel, the headwaiter comments upon the “good wine” that is the result of Jesus’s transformation. It was the duty of the Bridegroom to furnish the refreshments for the guests: to satisfy them and make them merry. Experiencing God’s love helps us awaken to the need to turn away from lesser, falser loves. God’s love does not appeal to our baser instincts but rather calls out to the deepest part of ourselves. There is within each of us a thirst, a longing for authentic love – and the love of Jesus satisfies that thirst in a way no other love can. Indeed, having tasted the “good wine” of Christ, our lives should take on a new character, endowed with a meaning and a purpose they had not had previously. The Gospel tells us that Jesus’s disciples began to believe in him after the miracle at Cana – it confirmed for them the love of a God made visible and real. In fact, there is even an ancient tradition that the man whose wedding it was is actually the Gospel writer himself, St. John, who from that point forward began to follow him, who became known as “the Beloved” disciple.

Friends, we are each “beloved,” we are each “espoused” by God, who loves us with a faithful love. That Christmas message, that Epiphany reality, is a message for every season: that in his Son, God has proven his love for us. If you have forgotten that fact, or been unconvinced by it recently, seek the love of Jesus the Bridegroom. Be fortified by the “good wine” of Jesus, which delights in a way the world cannot, and which restores and refreshes us with the knowledge of God’s faithfulness. May this story of the miracle at Cana begin something new within each of us, so that we may come more and more to believe.