Today’s Gospel describes a wedding feast at Cana where Jesus reveals his divine power by his first miracle of transforming water into wine. Throughout the Bible, marriage is the symbol of the Covenant relationship between God and his chosen people. God is the faithful groom and humanity is his beloved bride.

Where Isaiah uses the metaphor of spousal love to describe God’s love for Israel, God’s fidelity to his people is compared to a husband’s fidelity to his wife. By our baptism, each of us has been betrothed to Christ. In today’s gospel St. John describes the first of the seven “signs” by which Jesus revealed his divinity.

When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother told him about it. At first Jesus seemed to refuse to do anything, but later told the servants to fill six large stone jars with water and take some to the headwaiter. When they did, the water had become wine, better wine than that which had run out.

There are several messages in today’s Gospel. We are invited to welcome Jesus and Mary into our homes and remain with us. “Do whatever he tells you.” This is the only advice given by Mary recorded in the New Testament, and it is a prerequisite for miracles in our families. The Bible tells us how to do the will of God and teaches us how to change our daily lives.

Just as Jesus filled the empty water jars with wine, let us fill the empty hearts around us with love. If our families have lost the savor of mutual love, let us renew them at the altar with the invigorating power of the Holy Spirit. By the miracle of Cana, Jesus challenges us also to enrich the empty lives of those around us with the new wine of love, mercy, concern and care.