Brothers and sisters, today we hear of transformation. Saint John tells us of a miracle, indeed his first one. Our Lord Jesus Christ performed a miracle in which water is transformed into wine: delicious wine, not the stuff that gets you drunk and gives you a headache the next day (or worse), but what is immediately recognized as good wine. What our Lord Jesus Christ did, He did at Cana in Galilee, and in doing so, He manifested His glory. And it made His disciple believe more in Him, for we are told by Saint John the beloved disciple, “His disciples believed in Him.” Even here, we see Saint John teaching us that in receiving the Eucharist, our belief in Christ should increase, for we know His power is in us.

Saint John relates this Miracle at Cana in the second chapter of his Gospel account. The disciples are following Jesus because of the amazing word of endorsement proclaimed by Saint John the Baptist, which takes up much of the first chapter. The disciples had heard John Baptist’s testimony: “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world” – the very same testimony which calls us to receive Christ in the Sacrament of His Humanity called the Eucharist. John Baptist gave more testimony about Jesus: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.” The Holy Spirit had told John Baptist this would happen, and it indeed did happen. And John said, “I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” At the time of the Miracle of Cana, the disciples embraced Jesus because John the Baptist called Him the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world – which means Jesus is the Lamb of God, Who removes all separation between us at the God the Father, maker of heaven and earth.

Jesus said to His disciples that He would make them fishers of men. John the Baptist’s testimony had caught fish. By the mere teaching of the Lamb of God, John had reeled in Saint Andrew, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Peter, Saint Philip, and Saint Bartholomew (who is also named Nathanael). Ancient church tradition also indicates that Saint Simon (often called the Zealot) was present as well at the Wedding of Cana – indeed that Simon was from Cana, and was the bridegroom at the wedding where the Saviour performed this miracle of transformation; that after witnessing the miracle of the water turned into wine, he became a zealous follower of Christ, and for this reason is known as Saint Simon the Zealot. That Saint Simon in his discipleship of Jesus was zealous, or full of zeal, for Christ made him full of the Holy Spirit. In changing water into wine, He changed the water of Simon’s ordinary life into the wine of divine love.

The 19th century Anglican divine Father John Keble preached these words about the wedding at Cana: “The turning water into wine at a marriage feast, came first among our Lord’s mighty works: why was it, as S. John calls it, the beginning of miracles? It was so, because it was in a special way a sample, a taste, a glimpse, of that power which is at the bottom of all miracles: the power which keeps up the ordinary course of the world, and works such astonishing changes in it.” Then he added: “When we think of this marriage feast in Cana, let it put us in mind that Jesus Christ is in our feasts, is with us wherever we are, and in all that we do, turning our water into wine, our earth into heaven, if we prevent Him not by our sins.”

Let us be the water that Christ turns into wine. Let us be changed from odorless, ordinary water to sweet-smelling wine of heavenly vintage. Let us be transformed by Christ from our old selves of sin into our new life in unity with Christ. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to show the transformative power of Christ to the world through the examples of our own lives. As Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 2: Let us be “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” Let us be known for the love we show to our fellow Christians, and to the world: let us be transformed, let us allow Christ’s miracle happen in our hearts, so that, just as all gathered in Cana for the wedding knew of Christ’s power and glory, that through us, and through our zeal for knowing and loving Jesus Christ, the world knows Christ and sees the glory of Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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