Then ensued an incredible and apparently farcical performance. There were six great urns of stone or earthenware in the vestibule, each containing two or three measures of water for washing the hands and feet on arrival. This practice was obliged by the fact that sandals were worn, and that it was before the days of macadamized roads and concrete footpaths, so that travelling was dusty and dirty in the best of conditions. As well as being a ceremonial, it was necessary to wash on arrival. All the guests had come, and therefore the urns were empty or nearly so.
      Our Lord pointed to these great vessels and said, “Fill the water-pots with water.” Note the ready obedience to this instruction which must have struck most strangely on the ears of those waiting men. Did they not object to that ludicrous behest? No, they did not. But observe too the truly remarkable circumstance that Our Lady had in advance ordered them to obey.
      Why did Our Lord not address Himself directly to them without this sort of mediation? Why had she to interpose between Him and them as if to guarantee Him? That is the way in which the Holy Trinity arranged the miracle. The inference is definitely there; that without her command to the waiters they would not have obeyed Him, esteeming the proceedings to be ridiculous – as indeed they would have been but for the climax! What is the purpose of filling up those enormous containers; considering that the ablutions are all over? And even if the men had guessed that replenishing of the wine was in view, why not utilize the empty wine receptacles instead of those inappropriate urns which will provide nearly 150 gallons of wine?
      Why does the holy page so specifically record that order of Our Lady to the servants if not to further emphasize that at this key-moment of Redemption, as at the Incarnation itself, she had to initiate things, to introduce the Lord to men, to give Him to His work. She is not the Redeemer but she has her secondary part to play. That is why the Catholic Church is so insistent that if she be not invited to the Christian feast, absolutely everything will go wrong there.
      The waiters filled the urns with water up to the brim, as the Gospel suggests. Then Jesus said to them, “Draw out now and carry to the chief steward of the feast. And they carried it. And when the chief steward had tasted the water made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the waiters knew who had drawn the water. The chief steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Every man at first sets forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast kept the good wine until now.” A memorable phrase which rockets down through history into our ordinary language. But later on there will be still better Wine – that of the Eucharist!
      The Scripture concludes, “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His Glory, and His disciples believed in Him.” (St. John ii. 1-11.) Overwhelming in every one of its details! The Founder of Christianity in the presence of the apostolic group, the germ of Christianity, manifest to them His Divine power, causes them to believe in Him, and He does it by the instrumentality of Mary.

Next: Mary’s Vital Central Place