In regard to miracles, we are inclined to overlook the fundamental part they played in Our Lord’s mission, and after His time, in the Church. The modern mind tends to lean upon itself and to overvalue its contribution to religion. The approach to conversion is the intellectual one. We are inclined to exhibit the Church as a sort of super-university teaching everything. We summon the world into its halls and then we are surprised that so few respond. We are more than half ashamed to refer to miracles, as if it was a childish argument. What Our Lord so relied upon we soft-pedal. And I must here pass the comment that our methods are getting few conversions. We must not forget that Our Lord’s behavior in every department forms a headline for us to follow. We should do what He did, or at least we should try. I must of course explain that His appeal to the miraculous was to work the miracles. That is not within our power, but we can point to them, and particularly to the modern miracles which justify the claims of the Church.
      Not only did the miraculous bulk big in Our Lord’s mission, but a miracle actually opened it. The Church teaches that Our Lord’s mission was inaugurated at the marriage feast of Cana; that it was opened in a sense prematurely; and that this was due to the intervention of Our Lady. That is as intriguing proposition, which it is worthwhile delving into.
      The Gospel dealing with it says: “There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee and the Mother of Jesus was there.” That is a short simple sentence, and it is up to us to try to expand it by using our imagination. We can imagine that lovely woman there. She would be in the midst of the hurly-burly, her sleeves tucked up, looking out for jobs and doing each one of them with competence. She was no passenger at the feast.
      The Gospel goes on: “And Jesus was also invited and His disciples.” From this form of words it is evident that Our Lord was invited in a secondary way to Our Lady, possibly purely because of her. Calvin, whom I have already mentioned, together with a number of other Protestant commentators, insists that such was the case; that Our Lord was invited only because of her, and Our Lord’s disciples only because of Him. This forms another exemplification of the ever-present Christian law. Mary has to be present at every epochal moment in Our Lord’s life, and the Church’s life, and in our own life, and in every conversion.

Next: Mary’s Intervention at Cana