Mary, Type of the Church and Pattern of its Mission - Sermon at Parish Mass, Epiphany 2 2016

Isaiah 62:1-5

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

John 2:1-12

“There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.”

It is significant that she is not named, either here or in the other scene in which she appears in John’s Gospel, standing at the foot of the cross. John’s Gospel is full of symbolic meaning, and the Mother of Jesus is here as more than just a character in the story. She is the one who with him brings to birth the new creation and opens the feast of God’s Kingdom. She is the mother and the type of the Church, the disciples who are rooted and live in Jesus.

The fact that John’s Gospel is so rich in symbolism doesn’t of course mean that the events described didn’t happen. There is much detail that only an eye witness could have known. But John sees the symbolic depth in the actions of Jesus and relates it to us.

The Mother of Jesus links Cana and Calvary. Many scenes in John’s Gospel are like mirror images of each other, reflecting and bringing out their meaning, and the wedding at Cana is one such scene, foreshadowing of the death and resurrection of Jesus later in the Gospel.

There are other links between the two. The story of Cana begins, “on the third day”, which hints at the resurrection “on the third day” that is yet to come. Jesus says, “my hour has not yet come”. In John’s gospel, the “hour” of Jesus always refers to the crucifixion, which is seen as the fulfilment of everything that Jesus has come to do, Jesus reigning from the cross, pouring out his life, his spirit, into creation. So, too, at Cana we are told that Jesus “revealed his glory”; and in John the glorification of Jesus, like the hour of Jesus, is the cross.

There were six stone waters jars there for the Jewish rites of purification. These represent the law of Israel, embodying God’s promise that he would purify his people and make them his own. And in fact the jars are of such a size that they would normally be found in the temple, rather than a private home. But they are empty; their promise is unfulfilled. Law by itself does not bring life. Jesus commands them to be filled.

The law does not need to be abolished, but filled up, transformed, with the glory and grace of God which is what the law anticipates. The ten commandments are not out of date! But they are there in anticipation of grace. Of course, “thou shalt not kill”. But if God has given you his Spirit, then of course you will turn away from killing, and stealing, and adultery, and so on, because God wants you to be like him, and God is not like that. John has already told us this in his prologue: “the law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

This is what Jesus has come to do: to restore and complete the work of creation, to fulfil the law so that it overflows into grace, to pour out God’s glory into the world. All of this Jesus will achieve through his death and resurrection, and it is foreshadowed at Cana. So Jesus gives this sign of transformation and glory, water becomes the wine of the wedding feast.

The wedding feast is an image often used by the prophets. Isaiah gives us an example, in our first reading today, “For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you”. So God speaks to Israel through Isaiah. The wedding feast is an image used for the union of God and his people, of heaven and earth, God’s spirit poured out into creation making all things new.

And Jesus himself is the bridegroom, John the Baptist calls him that. Here, at Cana, Jesus appears as the Lord who has come to marry his people, his bride, Israel, to whom whom he was betrothed of old, Israel now expanded to include all believers of all races and nations.

That is the feast to which we are called. Jesus has come to fill up our old vessels of water with the new wine of his kingdom. He has come to pour out his spirit into creation, making all things new. He has come to celebrate the marriage of God and humanity, of heaven and earth. And we are called to this feast of union with God, to be filled with his transforming glory. From Bethlehem to Calvary, from our birth to our death, God’s glory is present in Jesus to transform the world.

There is another connection between Cana and Calvary. There were six stone jars at Cana for ritual purification; normally there would be seven of them. Where is the seventh? It is in John Chapter 19, at the foot of the cross: “A jar full of sour wine was standing there.” Jesus is on the cross; the water become wine at Cana, it seems, has been rejected and gone sour; yet it is about to undergo another transformation: “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.”

The water changed into wine now becomes blood and water, the tide of sacramental grace, baptism and the Eucharist bringing the Church to birth from Jesus’ opened side. This recalls the creation in Genesis, where the one there called “woman” – she is not named “Eve” until after she has sinned – is taken from the side of Adam as he slept. And if you have wondered why Jesus addresses his mother as “Woman” in this scene, that is why. She stands here as the archetypal woman, the mother of all living, the type of the Church, born sinless from the opened side of the new Adam as he sleeps in death.

The Mother of Jesus is present in both these scenes as Jesus brings the Church to birth. At Cana, she says the only words that she says in all of John’s Gospel. Just nine words, but they sum up the mission of the Church, for whom she stands in this story as mother and type.

“They have no wine.” The Church must be attentive to humanity and its needs, above all to the need for grace: all are called to the banquet of the Kingdom, the glorious feast in which we drink the new wine of God’s transforming glory. But so many do not know this good news. We must bring them to Jesus, and Jesus to them.

And then, with the Mother of Jesus, we point to him: “do whatever he tells you”. What does he tell us? “Love one another as I have loved you”; “remain in my love”. In him we find life, grace, the Word of creation who sets us free. Abiding in him, we find our true life, the union with God of which the marriage feast is the both the sign and celebration.

The Church can sometimes get caught up in its own issues and arguments, and that is a failure: Jesus has the words of eternal life; the task of the Church is to being people to him, not to distract them with ourselves. The Mother of Jesus shows us what the mission of the Church is all about, and it is simple: “They have no wine”; and, “Do whatever he tells you”.

That is our task. We are to imitate the Mother of Jesus, who is the Mother of the Church, too. The Church is born from the death of Jesus and lives with his risen life. Through baptism and the Eucharist we share in the new wine of grace which unites us with God in Christ, abiding in his love. And we are to welcome others to the marriage feast, to which Christ has welcomed us.