A Feast is prepared; it is a Marriage-Feast; and the Mother of Jesus is present at it, for it is just, that, having co-operated in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, she should take part in all that her Son does, and in all the favours He bestows on His elect. But, in the midst of the Feast, the wine fails. Wine is the symbol of Charity or Love, and Charity had failed on the earth; for the Gentiles had never tasted its sweetness; and as to the Synagogue, what had it produced but "wild grapes"? (Is. 5). The "True Vine" is our Jesus, and He calls Himself by that name (John 15). He alone could give that "Wine which gladdens the heart of man" (Ps. 103:15). Mary said to Jesus: "They have no wine". It is the office of the Mother of God to tell Him of the wants of men, for she is also their Mother. But Jesus answers her in words, which are apparently harsh: "Woman! what is it to Me and to thee? My hour is not yet come". The meaning of these words is, that, in this great Mystery, He was about to act, not as the Son of Mary, but as the Son of God. Later on, the hour will come when, dying upon the Cross, He will do a work, in the presence of His Mother, and He will do it as Man, that is, according to that human nature which He has received from her. Mary at once understands the words of her Son, and she says to the waiters of the Feast, what she is now ever saying to her children: "Do whatsoever he shall say to you".

Now, there were six large waterpots of stone there, and they were empty. The world was then in its Sixth Age, as St. Augustine and other Holy Doctors tell us. During these six ages, the Earth had been awaiting its Saviour, who was to instruct and redeem it. Jesus commands these waterpots to be filled with water; and yet water does not suit the Feast of the Spouse. The figures and the prophecies of the ancient world were this water, and until the opening of the Seventh Age, when Christ, Who is the Vine, was to be given to the world, no man had contracted an alliance with the Divine Word.

But, when the Emmanuel came, He had but to say, "Now draw out", and the waterpots were seen to be filled with the wine of the New Covenant, "the Wine which had been kept to the end". When He assumed our human nature - a nature weak and unstable as water - He effected a change in it; He raised it up even to Himself, by "making us partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1); He gave us the power to love Him, to be united to Him, to form that one Body, of which He is the Head, that Church of which He is the Spouse, and which He loved from all eternity, and with such tender love, that He came down from Heaven to celebrate His nuptials with Her.

O the wonderful dignity of man! God has vouchsafed, says the Apostle, to "show the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy", which had no claim to, nay, were unworthy of such an honour. Jesus bids the waiters fill them with water, and the water of Baptism purifies us; but, not satisfied with this, He fills these vessels, "even to the brim", with that heavenly and new Wine, which was not to be drunk save in the kingdom of His Father (Rom. 9:23). Thus, divine Charity, which dwells in the Sacrament of Love, is communicated to us; and, that we might not be unworthy of the espousals with Himself to which He called us, as He raises us up even to Himself.