Hidden Abundance

In this episode, Fr Richard Healey reflects on the wedding at Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. He explores the cultural practices of weddings during Jesus’ time and highlights Mary’s role in recognising the need when the wine ran out. Fr Richard emphasises the themes of faith, abundance, and the importance of following divine guidance. He encourages us to trust in God’s plan, even when faced with challenges, and to remain open to the transformative power of Jesus’ actions. This episode invites us to embrace faith and experience God’s generous love.

00:00:01 Weddings are pretty amazing experiences and we’ve all had, you know, those memories of beautiful moments. And of course, also of the bloopers that almost invariably happen in either the ceremony or during the the different events that that make up a contemporary wedding. But back in the time of Jesus, it’s a little bit hard to actually be able to construct exactly what was happening. There’s not a lot of scriptures that give us the kind of the details of, of all the different events. So we have to kind of construct it from the different things that are mentioned. And it’s kind of interesting, I guess, because we probably don’t write a lot. I mean, there’d be certain kinds of, of magazines that would give you all of the kind of the gloss and the details behind particular weddings. But when something is just such a commonplace part of our lives, it’s not something that we that historians or academics will necessarily write down. And so it makes sense that when it comes to trying to reconstruct events in the past, it can be a bit challenging.

00:01:10 But what we have been able to determine is that usually the wedding would begin at the groom’s house, and so all of his guests would begin to assemble there at his house or his parent’s house, if he’s still living at home. And so they would all gather there, the musicians would be there, and then they would go on procession to the bride’s house or her parent’s house. And so they would all go singing and dancing and playing the music as they make their way through the streets to arrive, probably in late afternoon at her house. And it was up to the parents then to be able to say, yes, we think the groom is worthy. We think he’s going to be a suitable match. And so we will give our daughter over to you. And then all of their party who had gathered at their house will then join in the procession, and then with the lamps lit. Because it was evening by now, they would make their way back to the groom’s house, and for the beginning of the celebration that wasn’t the wedding.

00:02:19 So they would arrive in that evening, and there would be just the first signs of, of all of that beginning to unfold. And the bride would be led to her new room there in the house, and she would sleep that night. The next day was when the actual ceremony would happen, when all of the festivities would begin to unfold. More singing, more dancing, more celebration. And that would continue for another one’s text says another seven days. When we read about it in the Book of Tobit, it actually says for another two weeks that this celebration would continue. So the wedding itself would happen on that first experience, the first day, the first full day, and there would be the moment when the couple would go off to the chamber to consummate the wedding, and that would be seen as the moment for the celebration would continue for many days after that. So imagine the stress. Imagine having to work out how much food. How much wine is this group of people going to consume over the course of 7 to 14 days? I mean, my family aren’t big drinkers, but some of my in-laws are.

00:03:35 And so when there’s an open tab, everyone’s wondering who’s got the black Amex card that is able to cover that amount. So that moment when they ran out. I mean, how devastating would that be when you’re hosting people at your home, at your house? You know, you want to make sure there’s enough food. And we generally over cater just to make sure that no one goes home hungry. So that moment, you know, how devastating that must have been. And it’s a wonderful thing, a beautiful thing that it’s Mary who notices; Mary, who has the heart to recognize where there is a need. And she doesn’t just notice, but she responds. And it’s a sign of of why we’ve always been able to find a place in Mary’s heart. You know, that sense that we can confide in her, that we can take our deepest needs to her and know that she gets it. She understands what these needs are. And then she goes to Jesus. She goes to the source.

00:04:43 She goes to the one that she knows. He is the one that will be able to answer the deepest needs of everybody who is here celebrating at this wedding festival and all that he does. Well, first, the great theme in John is always about time. My hour has not yet come, and yet Mary knows that he will do it. He will come through in the end. Just do whatever he tells you. It’s such wonderful advice. And so the servants then go and they begin to fill these huge stone water jars. Six of these, we’re told, each holding 2 to 3 measures, is what the Greek is, which is between 80 to 100l each. Just think of that. How much does it take to carry, say, a bucket of water? Ten liters of water. You know, that’s a fair amount of water. Remember, there’s no indoor plumbing. There’s no tap that they can just go and turn on. There’s no hose that they can run across to fill up these stone water jars.

00:05:52 These servants have to go outside, go to the well, put the bucket down, lower it down into the water, draw it back up, fill up their smaller containers, then carry them back into the house. Pour it into these stone water jars and back again. This process is not something that just happens really quickly. This process of filling these stone water jars would have taken at least an hour to do these four servings back and forth, maybe 50 or 60 times. They have to go to fill up these buckets of water, to carry them back, to fill up these stone water jars, and all the time going. Why on earth are we doing this? The ablutions have already happened when the guests arrived. That was when you do all of the ritual washing. They don’t do it in the middle of the ceremony. Why on earth are we doing this? Do whatever he tells you. How many times have we struggled when we felt a sense that. What on earth are we doing this thing? Why do I have this desire to do this? And yet I’m thinking, Lord, why on earth do you want me to do this? What sense does this make? It fills no purpose.

00:07:08 It doesn’t seem to satisfy any particular need. And yet, faithfully, we just keep trudging back to the will. To draw the water, to bring it back to the stone water jars to fill them up. I mean, not told at what moment the water changed. We’re not given an insight as to whether Jesus did some acrobatics, and whether he kind of called down the powers of glory, whether it was this great, extensive prayer. There’s no mention of any of those details. So it seems that just somehow in that process, this water begins to change. It begins to be changed and transformed and not just in the ordinary wine. What are we told? So this is the very best. Normally, you know, you use the better wine at the beginning, when people can still taste it, when they’re still sober enough to understand what’s happening. The cheapest thought at the end of the wine. Good hospitality tips there, we were told, no, this is the very best that he’s offering us.

00:08:11 I mean, how many times do we imagine that God is stingy? The God just gives us kind of a drip feed of grace, of love, of mercy. How many times do we kind of imagine that God is only giving us enough, just barely enough, that there’s no generosity, there’s no abundance in God? And yet this miracle, this sign that Jesus offers to us to open the hearts of the disciples. That’s the point at the end of this sign that the disciples began to believe in him. They began to experience this change in the transformation because Mary had the insight to point them to Jesus. The Mary had the insight to tell us, just do whatever he tells you to call us into that space of surrendering our hearts. And even though we’ve already been to the world a dozen times, even though we’ve already questioned why we keep doing this, the Lord simply invites us to be faithful. The Lord simply invites us to keep doing what the Lord has invited us to do that somehow, in that moment.

00:09:23 There is this change. There is this transformation that the ordinary becomes the moment of grace. The ordinary becomes that exchange, that encounter, that possibility of God’s amazing love being poured out upon us. We can be changed as long as we simply do whatever he tells us. Let’s open ourselves. Let’s kind of ponder what are those things that I’m really struggling with today? What are those questions that I’m defining a bit too hard, a bit too impossible? And how can I surrender myself into that and allow the Lord to call me more deeply into that joy? And it’s acknowledged that, Lord, I don’t understand what’s going on, but all I know is that if I do whatever you tell me that I will find this abundance, I will find this grace, and I will be changed and transformed by your love and your mercy.

Prayer after Communion