Point II.—Result—Water Changed to Wine
The waiters have not long to wait for their orders. When His Mother has prepared us and we are standing waiting ready to do "whatsoever" He shall say, the order is quite clear. We know exactly what He means, and what it is that He wants done; and though the order may seem unreasonable, and we run the risk of humiliating ourselves before others, yet we shall do it, for His Mother said: "Whatsoever." And by doing it we shall prove that our love, like hers, is a consummating love—a love that finds its consummation in obedience. This kind of love is like a fairy's wand; it changes all that it touches, water is wine everywhere—that is, we get the best out of everything; not perhaps immediately, or at any rate we are not so quick to detect the "good wine" as the steward of the feast was; the path of obedience is often, as it was for Mary, a path beset with difficulty and sorrow; but love has touched it, the result is the same, the water is changed, and changed into "good wine." It would not be good for us to drink of it to the full now. God reserves the good wine till the end, and when we have well drunk of the cup of suffering and sorrow here, He will hand us the cup of joy that inebriates. Here we may only "taste and see that the Lord is sweet"; (Ps. xxxiii. 9); but one day, when the flamma amoris consummantis is perfected in us, when we have done all that He saith to us, and paid our debts even to "the last farthing," (St Matt. v. 26), then we shall drink to the full of the joy of His countenance, (Ps. xv. 11), and He will say: "I have inebriated the weary soul, and I have filled every hungry soul." (Jer. xxxi. 25.)
Colloquy with Our Lady, asking that I may always hear her voice telling me to obey her Son.
Resolution. To remember that obedience turns water into wine.
Spiritual Bouquet. "Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye."
Who is my Mother?
"My mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of God and do it." (St Luke viii. 21.)
1st Prelude. Our Lady standing waiting on the outskirts of the crowd.
2nd Prelude. Grace to "hear the word of God and do it."
Point I.—His Mother Standing Without
This one incident in which Mary is mentioned between the time of the Marriage at Cana and Holy Week, happened during the second year of her Son's ministry. We do not know whether or not she had been near Him during this time. According to the opinion of some, she was one of the little band of women who followed Him about, to minister to His needs and those of His Apostles. But whether she followed Him actually or not, we know that her spirit was ever with Him, and that she followed Him with her prayers, and interest, and sympathy, knowing Him more as He manifested Himself more by His healing and miracles, and therefore loving Him and imitating Him more, and therefore, growing in grace, of which she was ever full. Such, we are quite sure, is a true picture of Mary, though this one instance at Capharnaum is the only occasion on which we are able to make an actual picture of her.
Her Son had probably come to Capharnaum for a rest after one of His missionary rounds; it may be that He had come to have a little time of refreshment with her. And she and His brethren—His relatives—went to meet Him, desiring to speak to Him. We are not told what it was that they were so anxious to tell Him. When they arrived He was already addressing a crowd which was sitting about Him, and which was so great that His Mother and His brethren could not get near Him; and so "they stood without"—on the outskirts—and thus attracted the notice of someone who attracted His notice; someone, in fact, who interrupted Him in the middle of His discourse, by telling Him that His Mother and His brethren wanted Him. Such is the simple incident, and by it Mary affords her Son the opportunity of giving two most important lessons to His Apostles, and also to those who would, during all time, have any kind of apostolic work to do.
Point II.—A Lesson on Interruptions