Cana of Galilee
Father Yohanna Meshreki
January 17, 2022
Holy Church commemorates the feast of the Wedding at Cana of Galilee on the January 20. Back then, at the wedding suddenly they ran out of wine which is the drink of hospitality for these occasions. This was the beginning of the predicament; a wedding lacking wine, the inability to be hospitable is a great shame for the people hosting the wedding. Likewise, when man fell and became separated from God, he became destitute of joy, unable to love, and sin corrupted him so he fell into a great shame.
Lord Jesus presence in the wedding, His incarnation amidst us, He restored what was corrupted and turned the table around in our favor once more. The Lord intervened, through Saint Mary, and created new wine for the wedding. Likewise, on the spiritual level, He became united with our nature that He took from Saint Mary so we become a new creation in Him, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthian 5:17). Additionally, we ought not to forget that creating new wine is only an ability of God the creator. In the beginning, He created man after His image, then came in the fullness of time to restore that distorted image by recreating man in Christ once more.
Through the incarnation and redemption of the Lord Jesus, He addressed our poverty and granted us richness through His grace, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthian 8:9). He also healed our inability as He gave us from His power and authority, and he placed His tremendous abilities in our hands,“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”(Romans 8:32). He also took away our shame through the cross to grant us His glory and righteousness, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”(2 Corinthians 5:21)
God revealed His divinity in the past when He converted water into blood in the land of Egypt, here He reveals His dominion over matter to prove that He is the same God of the Old Testament appearing in the flesh, “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.” (John 2:11)
The new wine tastes completely different; it is sweeter and better quality. Similarly, the level of man’s taste of God in the New Testament, by the work of the Holy Spirit, through the church, within the soul is much higher than the rudimentary spiritual level of man in the Old Testament.
Source: Saint Mary and Saint Joseph Orthodox Church