Second Luminous Mystery: The Wedding at Cana

The wedding feast at Cana is one of those mysteries of the Rosary which shows a side of the Apostles and Jesus that Dominicans can identify with; that is, being at a banquet drinking copious amounts of wine in celebration of a certain feast or solemnity. Enjoying food and drink in temperance, in a fashion that is appreciative of the beauty of creation, is part of what it is to be a Christian, as well as not just going along with gluttonous appetites. Nor however is the tone of this wedding feast cold and anxious, for all the wine ends up being consumed. When the wine runs out at this feast in Cana, it is Mary the mother of Jesus who more or less asks him to turn the water into wine. In this first public miracle of Jesus, he turns the water that the rigid Jewish ablutions rituals required into the best wine for those at the feast to drink. Jesus does this at a time of joy, a moment of public declaration of love between a man and woman, and of their intention to be part of the fabric of society having children of their own, committing themselves to each other for life. The symbolism of turning this boring ablutions water, stored in banal stone water jars, into the best sort of wine to fuel the banquet, is quite profound. Jesus requests the religious and anthropocentric water jars are turned over to be used for something much better, all in the context of temperance of our appetites. This marks the start of Jesus’s ministry, and in an atmosphere of joy and happiness, this contrasts to the more puritanical interpretation of religious self-denial, such as seen in the movie ‘Babette’s Feast’.