A Note From Father Eickhoff

January 19, 2025

I invite you to imagine yourself as taking the place of the headwaiter at the wedding at Cana that we hear about in today’s Gospel reading. What must have been a stressful occasion under the best of circumstances was becoming for the headwaiter an absolute nightmare. The wedding party hosts had either miscalculated the number of people present; or they had through penny-pinching deliberately not purchased enough wine to accommodate the entire party. In any case the wine was running out and the scandal of running out of wine would cast a blight upon the hosts and the marriage. What to do?

The Gospel does not tell us if the headwaiter went to Mary and asked for her help or if Mary on her own noticed the dire situation. In any case Mary went to her Son Jesus and told Him about the situation and then leaves the scene confident that Jesus will remedy the problem (and yes there is a lesson in there for us today about the assistance the Blessed Mother can obtain for us through Jesus Christ). Jesus then goes to the servers and directs them to fill the ceremonial water jugs with water and then Jesus directs the servers to draw the water from the jugs to take to the headwaiter. So, there you are in the place of the headwaiter; desperately wondering what you are going to do about the shortage of wine and no doubt thinking of how you are going to be blamed for this disaster when the servers show up with a new supply of wine. And not the cheap stuff either; but a superior vintage, the best of the entire party. The party is saved, the hosts will not be social pariahs, and your reputation as the best headwaiter in the Galilee remains intact.

It is important to remember that Jesus’ miracles do not happen in a vacuum. That is, Jesus does not simply stand up and wave His arms to attract attention and shouts “watch this!” Rather, Jesus’ actions are directed to the real needs of individuals. It is the desire of Jesus to come to the aid of people who need assistance. This is true at the Wedding at Cana or in any number of healings that Jesus carries out or in the defeat of evil spirits. Jesus does not “show off.” Instead, His miracles are almost secondary to His care and concern for those who need His help. Yes, it is true that Jesus’ assistance is often miraculous – He is the Son of God after all and the help that Jesus can give is divine in nature – yet I suspect there were many instances where Jesus came to someone’s assistance with a remedy that is available to any of us. This is not to say that the miracles of Jesus are not important. They are important in that they provide evidence of His divinity and His ability to make good on His promises of the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. Still, it is good for us to remember that Jesus came not to provide a spectacle (or in modern terms to be an “influencer”), but rather to save individual members of the human race.

 

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Stephen Eickhoff
Pastor