by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
“On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign – at his mother’s request – during a wedding feast. The Church attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence” (CCC, 1613).
I remember as a child how I loved to listen to my mother reading stories from the bible to us, her seven children. The Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-12 – today’s Gospel) was one of my favourites. I must admit that in those early years, what struck me was the transformation by Jesus of water into wine at the wedding – at the beginning of His public life. This was no magic. It was only as I grew older that I understood what my mother was trying to instill in us – that Jesus has the power to transform our lives, but that we must do whatever He tells us.
We were saved by His grace and it is this same grace that led Him to turn water into wine during his first recorded miracle on earth. All that we have is gift from God; from his abundant grace. And note that he does not transform the six jars into cheap wine. God wants the best for us. That is why He has inscribed a natural law in our hearts and minds – so that we will choose good and avoid evil.
Now that my mother is no longer with us, I cherish the time I had growing up in a stable home with a mother and a father. Marriage today is under threat. Catholics are called to strengthen, promote and defend marriage between a man and a woman – in our communities, in our country, and in our world. In his homily at the opening of the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme “The New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”, Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that: “Marriage is linked to faith, but not in a general way. Marriage, as a union of faithful and indissoluble love, is based upon the grace that comes from the triune God, who in Christ loved us with a faithful love, even to the Cross. Today we ought to grasp the full truth of this statement, in contrast to the painful reality of many marriages which, unhappily, end badly. There is a clear link between the crisis in faith and the crisis in marriage. And, as the Church has said and witnessed for a long time now, marriage is called to be not only an object but a subject of the new evangelisation.”
The culture of life that Blessed John Paul II asked us to build includes building a culture of marriage and the family. This requires us to understand what our Church teaches about marriage and the family. See Canon Law and our Catechism, e.g. “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring…” (CCC, 1601).
Archbishop John J Myers of Newark, New Jersey, US, has produced an excellent Pastoral Letter on marriage entitled “When Two Become One: A Pastoral Teaching on the Definition, Purpose and Sanctity of Marriage”. Inter alia, he says: “Many young people today have not experienced permanence and faithfulness in the familial relationships around them. This impedes their appreciation of the truth about marriage and makes it difficult for them to make serious and permanent commitments which overcome self-regard in favour of the good of others and the common good.”
He refers to the dramatic increase in the number of divorces which “has produced a generation that knows marriage only as an unstable state meant to serve the individualistic happiness of the spouses alone, with reduced regard for their duty to their offspring – the very opposite of the permanent and open-ended commitment that defines marriage as such.”
Note how our Lady interceded with her son, Jesus, to help out the family whose wine had run out at the wedding. Let us turn to our Mother, Mary, and offer up our prayers to her, asking her to intercede with Jesus for us. And as for us, remember Mary’s words to the servants at the wedding: “Do whatever He tells you.”
Lord, lead me along the path to holiness.
