Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today we get one of the well known and first miracles of Jesus. It’s a bit of an odd miracle in some ways. It’s not the dead being raised or some other awe-filling seeming thing. He makes sure there’s enough wine at a wedding.

If I were to simply stop there it might be easy to be a bit underwhelmed by the whole thing. But let’s dive into a bit of context.

The miracles of Jesus are rarely about the thing themselves—what happens in the moment—as opposed to what they signify. To what eternal truth is Jesus pointing toward with these earthly acts?

What is the inward and spiritual grace imparted by the outward and visible sign?

Wine was not simply a thing to be enjoyed as an intoxicant. It sits, alongside bread, as a critical foodstuff.

In a culture in which just obtaining food was a daily preoccupation for many, wine was part of what it took to get one’s daily needs met. Saying “give us this day our daily wine” could have been just as legitimate a prayer as praying for bread.

The first miracle of Jesus is a feeding miracle like the feeding of the five thousand and the miracle of the loaves and fishes. It’s the first sign that Jesus fills all living things with plenty. Along the way he will do it again. At the Last Supper he will offer it for eternity in himself.

The miracle, as always, points toward Christ as a source of life and joy.

Just as Mary tells those around to let her Son take what is and make it what it might be, we too are in the hands of the Lord. He takes us and makes us what we might yet be and feeds us so that we might grow into what he commands us to take and eat; we become the Body of Christ. We become and outward and visible sign of Christ’s love for the world.

The miracle is a simple one but its message endures: God provides. God transforms. God is good.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert