The Wedding at Cana as a Foreshadowing of the Blessed Sacrament

"They have no wine" (Jn. 2:3)

On the Second Sunday after Epiphany, the Church reads the gospel of the wedding at Cana, which begins with these words:

AND the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee: and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus also was invited, as were His disciples, to the wedding. And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine.

These words which open the famous Cana wedding miracle are only found in St. John's Gospel. The simplicity of the scene only adds to its beauty. A simple request to Our Lord by His holy mother: They have no wine. Three simple words in the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible: Vinum non habent. Three words in honour of the Holy Trinity. A Trinity of words to announce the first public miracle of Jesus, that would show the world for the first time that He is truly one of the Holy Trinity.

The Fathers of the Church have written volumes of commentary on these three simple words and their profound spiritual meaning. And their parallel with the Eucharistic mystery has not gone unnoticed.

The Blessed Virgin Mother first of all perceived the lack. She was the first to notice that there was something missing. In Mediterranean culture, a feast without wine was unthinkable. They have no wine could easily be translated They have no joy, for wine was a very concrete sign of festive joy in that culture.

At first glance, it may appear that Our Lord's answer to His Mother is a rebuke. Woman, what is that to Me and to thee? My hour is not yet come. But the entire Catholic tradition is unanimous in saying that Our Lord is not rebuking His Mother with these words. If His words were a rebuke, or a correction of something that Our Lady was wrongfully asking of her Son, then He never would have performed the miracle. And Our Lady clearly understood this, as she said to the attendants of the wedding, Do whatever He tells you.

At Cana, Our Lord converts water into wine. Some Church Fathers say that the wine, while being an expression of joy, represents charity as well. The lack of wine can mean both They have no joy and They have no Charity (i.e. Divine Love), because joy is one of the fruits of love.

The miracle of Cana is a very simple one. A natural element converted into into a man-made one. Water into wine. But Christ did not come into this world simply in order to give us something human, something that even man could make (wine); He came to bring us something divine.

Jesus came into the world not just to save man from sin, but also to bring to man the love of God Himself. Divine Love was to be brought into the world through the Incarnation. Perhaps this is the reason why this gospel of Cana is read during the season of Christmastide (the Christmas season continues for 40 days until February 2 in the Church's traditional Roman calendar, though it is severely cut short in the new calendar). The gospel of the wedding feast at Cana is surely read during the Christmas season because through the miracle of Cana, we see the coming of Charity (Divine Love) into the world through the Incarnation.

The love of God, in fact the Love that is God Himself, is what the Incarnation brought to man. In the mystery of the Incarnation, the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us (Jn. 1:14). And that very same mystery, which occurred once and for all at the Nativity of Our Lord, is prolonged every day through the Blessed Sacrament.

The Blessed Sacrament as the Fulfilment of Cana

At Cana, Our Lord transforms water into wine. In the Holy Mass, the priest (acting in the Person of Christ) transforms wine into the Precious Blood of Christ. While the first miracle involves changing a natural element into a man-made one, the second miracle takes something made by the work of human hands and transforms it into something divine. In fact, we can say that the second miracle (the miracle of transubstantiation that occurs within the Catholic Mass) is the perfect fulfilment of what occurred at Cana.

The miracle of converting wine into the Precious Blood, a miracle that occurs on every Catholic Altar throughout the world whenever the Holy Mass is offered, is in fact a perfect miracle, in the sense that it turns something that is of man (wine) and makes it into God; it converts a fabricated product of a human creature and turns it into the Creator! At the Consecration, wine is changed into blood. But the Precious Blood of Jesus is not just ordinary human blood. By the principal known as the hypostatic union, Christ's humanity is always inseparably united to His Divinity through the Person of the Word, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. So the Blood made present on the Altar is Divine Blood: it is God's very Blood itself! Without a doubt, the miracle of Cana — in all its greatness — is but a pale reflection of the miracle of the Mass. The Blessed Sacrament is indeed foreshadowed at Cana and is the ultimate fulfilment of Cana!

The First and the Last Miracle

If Cana was the first [public] miracle performed by Our Lord after His Incarnation, then the Holy Eucharist is His last miracle. Every other miracle eventually leads to the miracle of transubstantiation (the conversion of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at Holy Mass), which is the Ultimate Miracle, and a miracle that will take place every single day around the world, on every Catholic Altar, until the end of time! Seen in this light, we can appreciate how the miracle of Cana is not just one small event in the early public life of Jesus. It is the Alpha (first) Miracle, and it always points to the Omega (last) Miracle: the Miracle of the Real Presence, of which nothing in this world is greater!

Many Catholics say that they would love to witness a miracle in their lives, and that they would do anything if only God would allow them to see a miracle with their own eyes. Catholics often chase after the miraculous, whether it be the miraculous stories of the levitations of the Saints, their bilocation, or the ability of some of them to read into the souls of penitents in the confessional (a gift that both the Curé of Ars and St. Padre Pio had). But the greatest miracle of all is right before our eyes (if only we have the eyes of faith), and we can experience it each and every time that we assist at Holy Mass.

Conclusion

So the wine at Cana, a symbol of joy at the nuptial feast, is truly and completely fulfilled in the Blessed Sacrament. The Eucharistic Presence of Jesus is the True Wine and the Source of all Joy, the last and greatest of all miracles! This is why St. John Mary Vianney famously said:

If only we knew what the Holy Mass truly is, we would surely die: not of fear, but of joy!