The Power of the Marian Connection (5) — What the Wedding Banquet at Cana teaches us about the Mother of Jesus
1 — The wedding banquet at Cana as a mirror of the power of the Marian connection
Let’s conclude this section on the nature and power of the connection between the Virgin Mary and the Trinity, the angels and the saints, with a concrete biblical exemplification of the power of Mary’s closeness and connection with God. Providence very kindly offers us a mirror into the prevailing powers of the mother of Jesus on her divine Son. This mirror serves as key to exploring Marian intercession. The fourth Gospel provides us such am example of the practice and principle of the Marian connection.
2 — “They have no more wine’ (Jn. 2:3) — Jesus’ mother demands for a miracle from Jesus
God our God, in whom there can be no deceit or shadow of alteration (James 1:17) did not leave us clueless as to the power of the Marian connection — as we are pleased to refer to that prerogative influence of the reach of the Blessed Virgin with the Most Blessed Trinity and its potential benefits for all who are connected to her. God gave us a clear and conspicuous cue and indication of it in the beginning of the most profound of the Gospels — the Gospel according to John. The setting is the wedding banquet at Cana in Galilee, as recorded in the second chapter of the Gospel according to St. John.
We find a major prefiguration of the role that the Blessed Virgin would play for all people of God who would seek her patronage, in the event of the miracle that immortalised the wedding at Cana. (Jn. 2:1–11) This pericope has been interpreted by biblical scholars from many perspectives, but for us, it is above all, a divine approval of the Blessed Virgin Mary as both mother and mediator between Christ, her divine Son and all God’s people, in every kind and circumstance of need. When Jesus heeded the bidding of His mother to intervene and to provide wine for the wedding banquet, even though His ‘hour had not yet come’ (Jn. 2:4), He clearly offered us an inkling to the fact that the ‘Woman’ is indeed powerful with God, that she can obtain for us from the Lord, whatever is necessary for our salvation and sustenance. But the Blessed Virgin also granted us a cue that indeed we can count on her to intervene on our behalf before the Son of the Most High, the Son of Man.
Let’s look briefly at what happened. Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding feast; so, they were there when the wine ran out. Perhaps, Jesus knew they had run out of win, but he did not initiate an immediate action. The apostles were there and may have seen that the wine was scarce, but they could not and did not take any action. The couples knew they needed help, but they did not know how to go about it. Perhaps the guests too noticed that the wine had run out, but it wasn’t their problem. Mary, the mother of the Lord saw that there was no more wine and she decided to take action, and to do so in a very special way. She is a mother and she acted like a mother. She knows what can be done. She knows who can solve the problem without a cost. She knows the law of God, that those who ask will receive (Mat. 7:7). But above all, she knows that her son would refuse her nothing, even when ‘hour has not yet come.’ So, she goes to Jesus and says: ‘Son, they have no more wine’ (Jn. 2:3). But she did not stop there. She wishes to remove every possible impeding obstacle, so she goes to servants and ‘warms’ them saying: ‘do whatever He tells you’ (Jn. 2:5) even if it sounds ‘foolish to you. In this way, the Blessed Virgin, not only obtained the miracle from her Son, but also protected it from being lost to the unbelief of the servants. In this same manner, as would every good mother, the Blessed Virgin obtains graces for all who connect with or are entrusted to her, but also preserves for us the graces, she has obtained for us from her divine son.
The couple who were having a wedding banquet in Cana are like all those Christian — Catholics and non-Catholics — who can be called wise, because they not only recognise Jesus, they also recognise his mother. The couple in Cana not only invited Jesus to the banquet, they also invited his mother, they did not ignore the Blessed Virgin, the mother of the Lord, rather, together with her Son, they honoured her. See how their wisdom and honour to the Blessed Virgin paid off: when the wine ran out and no one knew what to do and no one did anything, (including Jesus), it was the Blessed Virgin who took the initiative and did something which resulted in the miracle. Speaking thus in Aristotelian terms, we can say that while the Lord Jesus is the agent and efficient cause of the changing of water into wine, the Blessed Virgin is the form and formal cause of the miracle at Cana in Galilee. In the same manner, we believe without an iota of doubt, with the believing Church, that the Blessed Mother, she who found favour with God, she who shows the way, watches over all those who invite her into their life, into their family, into their affairs into their concerns, into their celebrations and endeavours; she knows when there is a problem or a need and she knows what to do, where to go, who to ask, what to say and what directives to give to bring about a solution. Those who keep close to the Blessed Virgin who acknowledge her and ask for her patronage and maternity, have the privilege of being shielded and aided by she who not only knows what to do and how to do it, but who is also united with the God Who can do all things. (Mt. 19:26; Mk. 10:27; Lk: 1:37; 18:27; Jer. 32:17,27; Job 42:2; 1Sam. 14:6; Gen. 18:14) as His daughter, His spouse and His mother.
3 — “By this sign, he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” (Jn 2:11) — the mother of Jesus reveals her power
The narrative of the miracle of the wedding banquet concludes with these words: “What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” (Jn 2:11) It talks about the miracle as being the first sign by which Jesus revealed his glory and for which his disciples believed in him. While this is true and indeed, while the miracle was very purposeful, what I would like to attempt even further to do, is to place emphasis rather on the mother of Jesus revealing to us her power with Jesus, through this sign, through the entire proceedings of the miracle at Cana.
For the purpose of this study, one major thing the miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee achieves, is that it unveils for us the prevailing power of the mother of Jesus with her son Jesus. The pericope presents to us a clear example of the intercessory powers of Mary. While the miracle itself showed the power of Jesus, the making of the miracle, shows the power of Mary. While for Jesus, the miracle showed his creative power, for Mary, it showed her praying power. For Jesus, the miracle was a manifestation of personal power, for Mary, it was a manifestation of prevailing power. While Jesus revealed his ontological creative power, whose potents can cause to be, what was hitherto not, and can bring about change or transference in the form or substance of any reality; the mother of Jesus shows her maternal prerogative over Jesus — who belongs to her in the same way every so belongs to his mother — by which she can effectively intervene in the exercise of Jesus’ power or for which she can rightfully make demands on Jesus’ power.
Clearly, the changing of water into wine at the wedding banquet at Cana, was not only a strategic event, but was also a deliberate divine action. In the eyes of the wedding guests and the wedding couple, it may have been an unforeseen eventuality, but, we have reason to believe, from the perspective of God to whom nothing comes as a surprise, that it was a purposefully strategized and divinely orchestrated incident, which was permitted or even occasioned by God to achieve, among others, two principal objectives:
- to show the divine powers of Jesus and so orchestrate faith in him
— to show the intercessory powers of Mary and so orchestrate trust in her
The miracle announced Jesus and caused faith in him. But the miracle also announced the mother of Jesus, and also caused trust in her prayers. How did the Virgin Mary reveal her prevailing power with Jesus in the miracle? How does the miracle reveal the power of Mary? In the middle of the wedding feasting, the wine ran out; and apparently, no one knew what to do, but Mary; or rather, no one had the power to provide an immediate solution but Mary. As it is, the Virgin Mary decided to exercise her power of prevailing on Jesus; she decided to do something to help the couple. So, she went to Jesus and demanded for a miracle on their behalf. Here is actually what she did: aware that her son Jesus is the same creator who, on the morning of creation, said ‘let there be light’ and there was light, she went to him and asked him to call wine into existence for the sake of the couple.
When she said the words ‘they have no more wine’, the Virgin Mary was not actually asking Jesus to produce wine or to buy some from the producers, she was asking him to create wine. But the most striking element of the miraculous-wine event at Cana is the unspoken certitude that informed Mary demand for the creation of wine from Jesus. In making this request from Jesus, as seen in the details of the text, the Virgin Mary showed a tacit trust that her request would be heeded, even though Jesus had said that his time for working miracles and giving signs was not yet due. While the demand for a miracle reveals to us Mary’s intercessory role on our behalf, her obvious implicit trust that her appeal would be heeded by Jesus, reveals to us her prevailing power with Jesus. It is thus, that the changing of water into wine at Cana, not only reveals the power of Jesus to do miracles, but also reveals the power of the Virgin Mary to intervene with and prevail on Jesus.
But most importantly, what is the nature of the power of the mother of Jesus that the miracle at Cana reveals? What is this unique power of the Virgin Mary that providence pointed out to us, alongside the announcement of the power of the Messiah? It is what we have called the power of the Marian connection. It is the Virgin Mary’s exclusive ‘power’ hinged on her exclusive function as the mother of the Lord; it is the mystical powers that come with becoming the mother of God. It is the special power of filial union with the Godman. It is the power of the mother-son relationship between the Son of God and his mother. It is the power of Mary’s special privilege of closeness and connection with God. It is the Virgin Mary’s power of access and insiderness with her son Jesus. It is the Virgin Mary’s singular assurance that if she asked something from Jesus, she would receive it, even if the time for it is not yet due. It is also Mary’s undisturbed certainty that what she asked for from her son Jesus would be granted her; so that she does not need to repeat her request, or explain why, or argue or insist; but rather she simply trusts that what she asked for would be done. This much is implicitly seen in the data of the creative miracle at Cana.
Michael Richmond Duru
24th May 2022
https://michaelrichmondduru.medium.com/subscribe
