Today’s Gospel: John 2:1-11
1 On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;
2 Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.
3 When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."
4 And Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come."
5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6 Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim.
8 He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast." So they took it.
9 When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom
10 and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now."
11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Other Mass Readings
First Reading: Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm: Psalm 96:1-3, 7-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
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2 comments:
A translator can translate in one of two ways: word for word...or...sense for sense. Almost all Catholic and Protestant translations translate Christ's words to His mother here in the sense for sense fashion.
The Latin Vulgate thankfully does not do this. It gives the non rude real words of Christ:
"woman...what to me and to thee, my hour has not yet come."
The next mistake people make is to think Christ is talking about His hour to go public...but He already did that at Cana by bringing with Him his first disciples.
"Hour" in John always means his hour of passion and thus the hour when Mary's own soul will be pierced. At Cana Christ could see on Mary's face that she was worried about His doing a miracle and then being arrested immediately by temple soldiers.
Christ was assuring Mary that the passion was some time off into the future and not immediate:
"Woman...what to me and to thee, my hour has not yet come."
One of the more remarkable parts of this story is the faithfulness of the servant. Imagine for a moment if you were told to carry a cup of water to your boss when he expected wine. We get no indication that the servant at this point realized the miracle had happened -- he simply obeyed.
Would that we live with such faith!
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