John 2:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Those who invited Him to the wedding certainly did not have a proper understanding of Him. They invited Him not even as a great man, but simply as an ordinary man and acquaintance. The evangelist hints at this when he says, “The mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding, with His disciples.” That is, Jesus was invited just as she and the disciples were.

They invite the Lord to the wedding not because they had seen His miracles, and not as a great man, but simply as an acquaintance. Indicating this, the Evangelist says, “The Mother of Jesus was there,” and His brothers.

As they invited her and His brothers, so they invited the Lord. The Lord does not reject the invitation, but comes, because He looked not to His own dignity, but to what is useful and beneficial for us.

He who did not consider it beneath Him to be among servants could still less consider it beneath Him to go to a wedding.

[...] Cana of Galilee, that is, in the land of this low and perverted world, crooked in every respect and making things crooked. [...]

<...> He Himself also came to this feast when invited, together with His disciples, more for the sake of the miracle than for the banquet. He came also to sanctify the very beginning of human existence, I mean in relation to the flesh.

He who was recapitulating the nature of man itself, and transforming it wholly for the better, had to bestow blessing not only on those already called into being.

He also had to prepare grace for those who were yet to be born, and to make holy their passage into existence.

You may add a third reason to this. God had said to the woman: 'In pains thou shalt bring forth children' (Gen 3:16).

Was it not therefore fitting that this curse also should be removed from us? Otherwise, how could marriage under condemnation have been escaped?

The Lord came by invitation to the wedding feast. Is it marvelous that He came to a wedding feast in that house, when He came to a wedding feast in this world? Therefore His bride is the one whom He redeemed by His blood and to whom He gave the Holy Spirit as a pledge (1 Cor 1:22). He tore her from the devil’s claws, died for her sins, and rose again to justify her. Who has brought such gifts to his bride? Men may bring offerings of land, and also gold, silver, precious stones, horses, possessions, estates, and farms. But will anyone bring his own blood? If a man gave his blood to his bride, he would no longer be there to take her as wife. But the Lord, dying without corruption, gave His blood for the one whom, risen again, He was to take as wife. He had already betrothed her to Himself in His Mother’s womb. For the Word is the Bridegroom, and the bride is human flesh. You have all things in the one Son of God, who is also the Son of Man. He became the head of the Church. The womb of the Virgin Mary was His bridal chamber. From there He came forth like a bridegroom from his chamber, as Scripture prophesied: “And He, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, rejoiced like a giant to run His course” (Ps 18:6). From the chamber He came forth as Bridegroom, and He was invited to a wedding feast.

That miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He made wine from water, is not astonishing to those who know that God performed it. For on that day, during the wedding, He made wine in six jars, commanding them first to be filled with water. He is the same One who makes wine every year in the vines. As the water that the servants poured into the water jars became wine by the Lord’s act, so the water poured out by the clouds is changed into wine by the Lord’s act. Yet this latter deed does not astonish us, because it happens year after year. Through constant repetition it has ceased to be marvelous. It calls for far greater reflection than what was done in the water jars.

Who, when pondering the works of God by which this whole world is governed and ordered, will not marvel at wonders and be filled with them? If he thinks about the power of a single seed, of some tiny grain, he will see how great a thing it is, able to make the thoughtful tremble. But people have turned their attention elsewhere and have ceased reflecting on the works of God. For these works they ought daily to raise praise to the Creator. Therefore God has, as it were, kept for Himself the power to perform certain unusual deeds. By wonders He awakens people, as though from sleep, to worship Him. A man rises from the dead, and people marvel. So many people are born every day, and no one marvels. If we considered this more carefully, we would judge it more marvelous that one is born who has never lived, than that one who has lived rises again.

The same God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, does all these things through His Word. He governs all these things as the Creator of beings. He performed the first miracles in His own realm through His Word as God. He performed the later miracles through the same Word of His, now incarnate and made man for our sake. As we marvel at what was done through Jesus the Man, let us likewise marvel at what was made through Jesus as God. Through Jesus as God were made heaven and earth, the seas, all that adorns the heavens, all the riches of the earth, and all the abundance of the sea. Everything that sight can encompass was made through Jesus as God. We see these things. If His Spirit abides in us, let them gladden us in such a way that we praise the Creator. Let us not turn toward creatures and turn away from their Creator, as though facing what He made and turning our backs on Him who made them.

We see these things and encompass them with our gaze. What then of the things we do not see, such as angels, powers, authorities, dominions, and all that abides in that heavenly order and is inaccessible to our eyes? Yet angels, when necessary, show themselves to human beings. Did not God create all these things through His Word, that is, through His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ? And what of the human soul itself? It is not visible to us, yet it manifests itself through the deeds of the flesh and greatly astonishes those who ponder it seriously. By whom was it created, if not by God? And through whom was it created, if not through the Son of God? I am not yet speaking of the human soul. Take the soul of any animal. How it governs a vast body. It sets all the senses in motion: the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the nostrils to receive odors, the mouth to discern taste, and finally the members themselves to perform their proper functions. Does the body do this, and not the soul, the inhabitant of the body? It cannot be seen with the eyes, yet it causes wonder by what it does.

Now turn your reasoning to the human soul, to which God has granted understanding. He did so that it might have knowledge of its Creator, and might discern and distinguish good from evil, that is, the righteous from the unrighteous. How many things it accomplishes through the body. Look upon the whole circle of the earth, ordered as a human commonwealth. What organs of administration, what ranks of authority, what organization of cities, what laws, customs, and arts it contains. All this is born from the soul, and yet this power of the soul is not visible. When it departs from the body, a corpse remains. When it abides in the body, it preserves it in a certain way from corruption. For all flesh is subject to decay and would decompose if it were not preserved by the soul as by a seasoning. This, however, it has in common with the soul of animals. But the qualities in it most worthy of wonder are those I have already mentioned. They belong to reason and knowledge, in which the soul is renewed according to the image of its Creator (cf. Col 3:10), according to whose image man was made.

What will be the power of this soul when the body also is clothed with incorruption, and the mortal is clothed with immortality (cf. 1 Cor 15:53)? If it can do so much through corruptible flesh, what will it be able to do through a spiritual body after the resurrection from the dead? Yet this soul, as I have said, has a wondrous nature and substance. It is invisible and apprehended by reason. Nevertheless, it was created through Jesus Christ, for He is the Word of God. “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made” (cf. Jn 1:3).

Therefore, when we see that such things were created through Jesus as God, why should we marvel that water was changed into wine through Jesus as man? He did not become man in such a way as to cease being God. Man was added to Him, but God was not lost by Him. Therefore He who made all things made this wine from water.

Let us therefore not marvel at this because God did it, but let us love Him because He did it among us and for our restoration. In these acts He also gave us a certain sign. I believe that He did not come to the wedding without reason. Besides the miracle, a certain mystery and sacred action is hidden in this deed. Let us knock, then, that He may open to us and make us drink invisible wine. We were water, and He made us wine. He made us rational.

For we understand His faith, we who before were without understanding. And perhaps it belongs to Wisdom Herself, and to the honor of God, the glory of His power, and the love of His greatest mercy, to know what was accomplished in that miracle.

The Lord came, having been invited to a wedding. What is astonishing if He came to a wedding in that house, when He came to a wedding in this world? If He did not come into this world for a wedding, then He has no bride here. But what then do the apostle’s words mean: “I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Cor 11:2)? Why does he fear lest the virginity of Christ’s bride be violated by the devil’s cunning? “I fear,” he says, “lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted from simplicity and purity in Christ” (2 Cor 11:3).

Thus He has a bride here, whom He purchased with His blood and to whom He gave the Holy Spirit as a pledge (cf. 2 Cor 1:22). He purchases her from the devil. He died for her trespasses and rose for her justification (cf. Rom 4:25). Who can present such gifts to his bride? Men present some earthly ornaments: gold, silver, precious stones, stallions, slaves, landed possessions, estates. Will anyone present his own blood as a gift? If a man gave his blood to his bride, then in taking a wife he would lose his life. But the Lord, calmly accepting death, gave His blood for her whom He, risen again, took back to Himself. He had bound her to Himself already in the womb of the Virgin. For the Word is the Bridegroom, and the bride is human flesh. In both respects He was the Son of God and at the same time the Son of Man. The womb of the Virgin Mary, where He became the head of the Church, was His bridal chamber. From there He came forth like a Bridegroom from His chamber, as it was foretold in Scripture: “And He comes forth like a bridegroom from his bridal chamber; He rejoices like a giant to run His course” (cf. Ps 18:6). He came forth from the chamber like a bridegroom, and being invited, He came to a wedding.

May the Lord our God abide with us, and may He grant us to deliver what we promised. Yesterday, beloved, if you remember, the shortness of time prevented us from finishing the sermon we had begun. We postponed it until today, so that with His help the hidden meaning placed in the Gospel event might be disclosed. Therefore let us not delay long, but speak about the miracle of God. For this is the same God who daily works miracles throughout the world He created. People do not notice them very much, not because they are insignificant, but because they are constantly repeated. The rare deeds performed by the same God, that is, by the Word incarnate for our sake, brought people into great astonishment. This is not because they are greater than those He performs daily in the created world. Rather, those performed each day occur as though naturally, while these appear to human eyes as a manifestation of God’s authority visibly present. We said, as you remember, that one dead man rose, and people marvel. Yet every day people are born who did not exist, and no one is astonished. Likewise, who would not marvel that water was changed into wine, although God does this every year in the vines? But since everything the Lord Jesus did serves not only to awaken our hearts through wonders, but also to instruct them in the teaching of faith, we must consider what all those miracles contain, that is, what they signify. The discussion of the meaning of all these miracles, as you remember, we postponed until today.

When the Lord came, having been invited to a wedding, then apart from its hidden meaning He wished to show that He Himself established marriage. For there will arise those forbidding marriage, of whom the apostle spoke (cf. 1 Tim 4:3). They assert that marriage is evil and an institution of the devil. Yet in the Gospel, when the Lord was asked whether a man should divorce his wife for any reason, He made known that he should not do so except for fornication. In that answer, if you remember, He said, “What God has joined together, let not man separate” (cf. Mt 19:3-9).

Those who are well instructed in the catholic faith know that God established marriage. As the union of husband and wife is from God, so divorce is from the devil. Yet divorce from a wife is permitted on account of fornication, because she herself first chose not to be a wife by failing to keep marital fidelity toward her husband. Even women who vow virginity to God, though they stand on a higher step of honor and holiness in the Church, do not live outside marriage. Together with the whole Church they are in the marriage whose Bridegroom is Christ.

What is signified by the wedding in Cana and by the mysteries performed there? The word “Cana” is translated “possession,” and “Galilee” as “revelation.” Every intellect that has a capacity to receive divine revelation, when joined to virtue or to sense perception, needs the mediation of the Word. Thus virtue, joined with knowledge, may be attuned to the intellect, and sense perception may be subject to its authority, since by nature it obeys the intellect. But because, through disobedience, the power of knowledge was diluted by the stream of pleasures, the Word appeared upon earth, restoring the original firmness. The mother who asks is faith, or humility, or wisdom founded on knowledge. Each of these naturally gives birth in human beings to a higher, Godlike state.

“Jesus and His disciples were also invited to the wedding,” that is, as acquaintances. The Savior came, not looking to His divine dignity, but having in view the benefit of men.

He who established marriage came to honor it and sanctify it by His presence. He who took the form of a servant did not disdain to be present at the wedding of servants.

Those who invited Him did not yet have a proper understanding of Him. They invited Him simply as an acquaintance, one among many.

Therefore the Son of God comes to a wedding, so that what He had long ago established by His authority He might now sanctify by His blessing.

He comes to the wedding of the old institution in order to make for Himself a new bride of eternal virginity from the fellowship of men. He comes to a wedding, He who was not created in marriage.

He comes to a wedding not to take pleasure like the other guests, but to become known in a wondrous way. He comes to a wedding not to drink the cup, but to give it.

Ikos 2: Therefore He who had no mortal marriage at all, the only Holy and Fearful One, was present at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, as the divine John has told us.

He who was born without marriage came to a marriage. The only One borne upon the wings of the cherubim, He who is in the bosom of the Father and inseparable from Him, rested in the house of mortals.

He who knew no sin supped with sinners, so that by His presence He might show that marriage is worthy of honor. He is the One who made all things in wisdom.

Ikos 3: Taking its start from this, the great Paul wisely began and wrote, saying that 'marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled' (Heb 13:4).

Thus even virgins shine forth because of marriage, for they came into the world through the marriage of their parents.

Jesus and His disciples were also invited to the wedding. But how was He invited? As an ordinary man, as an acquaintance, or as the Deliverer proclaimed by John, the Messiah-Christ?

The Evangelist is silent about this. Yet from the further narrative one may conclude that those at the wedding feast did not yet know John’s solemn testimony about Jesus before those sent to him from the Sanhedrin.

Therefore one must suppose that Jesus was invited as an ordinary man, as an acquaintance. His disciples, as those who had come with Him, were invited only according to the custom of hospitality.

Jesus Christ was invited not as a teacher, because He was not yet a well-known person, but as a close acquaintance, perhaps as a relative. The disciples were invited as fellow countrymen.

'He was invited,' and so forth: when this happened is unknown. Yet it is unlikely that it was while He was in Judea, at the Jordan.

Perhaps, after arriving in Galilee, and precisely in Nazareth, He received this invitation there. From there to Cana was near, about four hours' journey.

'And His disciples': these were those just called on the banks of the Jordan. They followed Him into Galilee, the place of their birth and residence.

They were still inseparably with the Lord, though afterward they left Him for a time. A little later they were definitively called to the work of apostleship and appointed to this ministry; cf. Mt 4:18 and following; Mt 10:1 and following, and parallels.

The third day, on which the wedding took place, must be counted from the day of Nathanael's calling. The Evangelist counts the days in this way, from the last event, in 1:29, 35, and 43.

The Cana where the wedding took place is called Cana of Galilee. This distinguishes it from the Cana beyond the Jordan, which was near Bethsaida beyond the Jordan. Cana of Galilee was not far from Capernaum (Jn 4:48; Josh 19:28).

The Mother of Jesus Christ was present at the wedding as one managing the wedding feast. She was concerned about the lack of what was needed for the banquet.

Among those invited were Jesus and His disciples, those mentioned earlier. The heavenly Comforter honored with His presence even the earthly consolations of earthly pilgrims.

Marriage was blessed already in Paradise. He also blesses it who appeared in order to restore to men the Paradise they had lost.