Our gospel takes us to the Wedding Feast at Cana which as was pointed out occurred “on the third day.” Saint John chose to begin his gospel by stating “In the beginning.” All of this should take us back to creation and what was given concerning it in the Book of Genesis. This specific passage dwells with the fact that Mary is the New Eve and Jesus is the New Adam.
Jesus responds to His mother’s request, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” We also hear Him refer to His mother as “woman” later in the Gospel of Saint John at the time of the crucifixion. “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son.’”
Calling one’s own mother “woman” rather than by her name may seem to be harsh in nature. That is not the case. Rather, our Lord is pointing towards Eve and is likening Mary to her as the New Eve. We would notice in the Book of Genesis that the woman never has a name until after the Fall. “The man gave his wife the name ‘Eve,’ because she was the mother of all the living.”
As we were told in the Book of Genesis following the Fall, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This verse makes the first prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. He is the one who will free us from the Fall which brings forth sin and death.
As the Lord stated, “My hour has not yet come.” These words points towards the eventual coming of the Passion which would bring about our salvation. As He would later state in this Gospel, “I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? Father, save me from this hour? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.”
Through His working of this miracle of changing the water into wine He is beginning His public ministry. It is this public ministry which will begin His road which leads towards the cross and to that hour which would bring forth our salvation.
As is revealed to our Blessed Mother in the Temple by Simeon, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted; and you yourself a sword will pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
Mary’s “yes” in this occasion of the Wedding Feast puts this revelation made known to her 30 years prior into motion. This miracle costed her a lot and yet she still said, “Do whatever he tells you.” So too we must remain open to the will of God no matter what it may demand of us. We must remain stedfast in our faith and not be swept away by the way of the world.
Through the Fall we see how sin and death entered into the world, but through Mary as the New Eve and Jesus as the New Adam we are able to see how we have been redeemed through the cross that sets us free from sin and death.
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