by Ottavio De Bertolis

The meaning of this wonderful page of the Gospel of John is that we are no longer under the law, symbolized by the six stone jars for the purifications of the Jews, but under grace, that is, in the empire of love: Christ is in fact the true husband , the one who gives us the gift of justice and loyalty, gives us what we lack, and which the law can only denounce. And so our hearts cease to be hearts of stone, just like the jars, and can become hearts of flesh, that is, hearts moved by the Spirit, by love, and not by fear and the law: thus Saint Paul tells us that we have no received a Spirit of slaves to fall back into fear, but a Spirit of children, through whom we cry "Abba, Father".

And in this sense, the water of our life stops being dull, colorless and tasteless water, but this is transformed into the new, tasty and joy-bringing wine of the new Covenant. In fact, the messianic times are those in which, according to the prophecy, new wine will flow from the hills, and in fact torrents of new wine flow from the jars of Cana: it is also a prefiguration of the Eucharist, because the Bridegroom who comes, Christ the Lord, will consume the his mystical marriage with the Church by offering himself, his own body, on the cross, which will be for him like a winepress that presses this grape, given to us by the Father.

Contemplating this scene we ask Mary to help us enter the new Covenant, not to remain in the old logic, that of the law; we ask to be inebriated by this new wine, because only in this holy intoxication can we do things greater than the law. In other words, we ask that we are no longer just "observers" of the law, divine and ecclesiastical, but true lovers of Christ, who follow the Bridegroom where he takes them: and we know that those who follow the Lamb escort him to the Calvary, climbing with him on the cross. This is why so few of those present in Cana were also present on Golgotha; it is easy to have friends when you are celebrating, but it is much more difficult to find them in fatigue and pain. We therefore ask to be true and complete friends of his: amazed by the gratuitousness of the total gift of his life, of the mystery by which he makes us sinners his true bride, consuming himself for her, we can enter into a religion made not of human prescriptions, but driven by the Spirit, capable of offering our people without reserve to effort and following.

Moreover, we can contemplate, in the background of this scene, the Mother of God who sees the lack of wine, the fading of joy at the table; attentive to the needs of men, she herself asks for the intervention of her Son. Let us ask her to see our needs, the lack of joy, that is, of new wine, in many lives; let's ask her to help us do what He tells us. We ask for the grace to obey Mary, to listen to her voice, because even today she certainly guides us, pushes us, supports us; in her voice there is the same voice as her Son. Our life, the life of many people, is extinguished, reduced like water without any taste, because we do not believe in love: after all, we have believed in love only because the Son revealed it to us, otherwise it would certainly seem like a illusion. By keeping our gaze fixed on Jesus, God reveals himself to us for what he is: "whoever sees me sees the Father". But we must not love tasteless water more than the wine that God gives us, that is, we must not love the world and what it offers if we want to taste the things of God, and the meaning of a renewed life. We cannot even serve God and Mammon, that is, drink a little from one cup and a little from another, because we cannot serve two masters.

We therefore ask Mary to intercede for us, to no longer have that heart of stone, hardened in sin or superficiality or simply in our habits, even good ones, but to have a heart of flesh, sensitive to the interior movements of the Holy Spirit, and also to the needs of the poor, of people who are deprived of help and joy, just like the spouses of Cana, and who are waiting for a sign of attention and closeness from us. Let us pray even today "they have no more wine": that Jesus may be the rediscovered joy for us.