Second Sunday after Epiphany
The Gospel of Cana holds many lessons dear to us all, especially to our community placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Cana. For today, let’s focus on one apparently insignificant detail. By the way, there is no such thing as an insignificant detail in Holy Scripture, for God is its author, and everything holds some important meaning for us.
When Our Lady gives the servants the order to do whatever Jesus tells them, Jesus says : Fill the jars with water. He did not say: Put some water in the jars, but fill them. St John makes it clear that they did just that: They filled them to the brim. From the other side of the miracle, we can rejoice they did so, for it meant they had more wine! Had they reneged and gone for the minimum, they would have had less, and regretted it bitterly! But from this side of the miracle, it was truly an act of heroic obedience. It was no small matter to draw water from the well for those large vessels of purification. We are talking of roughly 150 gallons of water, all drawn by hand from the well. It was no small exercise. Their obedience is exemplary, but what does it mean for us? One obvious meaning is that we should always obey carefully the orders we receive from our superiors when they speak in God’s name. But might there be more?
I suggest quite simply that it is the Lord’s way of telling us to do well what we do. Filling the jars, though hard work, did not require any special skill. What was important was that it be done well. So, for each of us, the exact job we might be given to do doesn’t matter so much in itself, but it matters in the grand scheme of things, for God does nothing by accident, and there are no insignificant details in the life of those who serve God.
The Imitation of Christ says that the man does well who does well what he does. Are you a carpenter? Make the best cabinets and houses you possibly can. Are you a doctor? Don’t just try to cure your patients, be a father or mother to them. Are you a street cleaner? Make that street a pleasant place for people to walk. Are you a home-maker? Make your home the loveliest place in the world that your husband will delight in returning to each evening. Etc. To fill the jars to the brim means to put into all that you do every possible effort that can make it well done, better done, something worthy of God and pleasing to men. It must never be said that those who work for God are outdone by those who work for the world.
One of the ancient desert fathers described the monk as one who puts effort into all that he does. Why does he do that, when he knows that in the end, all passes and God alone remains? Well, it’s exactly because all passes and God alone remains, for God sees our hearts and He looks not so much at what we do as at the love with which we do it. It might not be easy. Some days, it is definitely very hard. But if the wine symbolises love and if we have that love of God and neighbour in our hearts, we will make every effort to fill to the brim with that love every single one of our actions. If we do all our actions with great love then we will never run out of wine. In this way, our days will truly be full. None of them will pass without having been fruitful for God and for men.