Catholic Men’s Daily Devotional and Bible Study – Christmastime – Saturday before Epiphany – John 2:1-11

As the Church recalls the many manifestations of Christ’s divinity in the approach to Epiphany (“to manifest, disclose, discover, conspicuous“), the first public miracle of Christ at the Wedding at Cana is remembered. Cana is a small Galilean town about five miles from Nazareth and the couple being married were perhaps family of Mary (or the desceased St. Joseph). Prefiguring Christ’s resurrection on the third day after the Crucifixion, Christ initiates His public ministry three days after calling the first disciples; it is also the seventh day after John the Baptist’s announcement of Christ, echoing the seven days of Creation (Gen 2:1-4), a sign of the New Creation in Christ.

Mary, ever attentive, realizes the married couple faces great embarrassment because the wine has run out. Mary recalls her miraculous conception and her Son’s divinity and intercedes, her statement (“They have no wine”) is a request for a miracle (there is no corner liquor store!). Christ’s response, rather than a curt rebuke (“O woman…), reveals Mary as the New Eve (“woman”) and mysteriously foreshadows the Christ’s future presence in the wine of the Eucharist. Mary, confident Christ will respond, tells the servants to simply do what Christ tells them.

Christ directs the servants to fill six stone jars which hold some 120 gallons (the equivalent of about 2 pallets of bottled wine) which is miraculously changed into wine. Prefiguring abundance and blessings of the future Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Heaven (Rev 19:7-9), the head steward affirms the wine is the “good wine.” Seeing the miracle, Christ’s disciples are given the faith to believe.

Awed by Jesus Christ – Person of the Trinity, Christ reestablishes the Creation of the world with the New Creation at the Wedding of Cana. Son of God, Christ has the ability to miraculously change one substance (water) into another (wine). Son of Mary, Christ demonstrates perfect obedience to Mary, whom He created.

Being a Heroic Catholic Man

1) The Virgin Mary, from the time of Christ’s miraculous conception, protects and guides (with St. Joseph) Jesus as He grows in stature into Perfect Manhood (Luke 2:52). Reflect upon Mary’s great consolation to be near the Son of God as He grew into manhood and the many times He must have filled her with awe.

2) The Wedding of Cana confirms Mary’s closeness to Christ and that the Blessed Queen Mother intercedes on the behalf of those in need (CCC 969). Take your most difficult problems to Mary and ask for her comfort and intercession with Christ; be prepared to be awed.

3) In recent decades, there has been a rejection of and attempt to reinvent the ancient understanding of marriage. Be confident in the Church’s inerrant teaching on the sanctity of the marriage of one man and one woman: Christ sanctifies the marriage of man and woman by being born to the Virgin who is married to Joseph, by beginning His public ministry at the Wedding of Cana and by revealing Heaven includes the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Spiritual Practices – Include in Today’s Prayers

Sacred Mystery of Rosary – The Joyful Mysteries

Daily Devotion – The Blessed Virgin Mary

Virtue of the Day – Hope

Corporal Work of Mercy – To bury the dead

Spiritual Work of Mercy – To pray for the living and the dead