Cana good

The Wedding at Cana is a Scriptural passage I love for it was what guided me during my courtship days when I was feeling nervy about marriage. Eventually P and I chose it for our wedding mass gospel reading for we both felt it represented our relationship - miraculous, joyous, abundant, best wine for last and all that. Incidentally, our wedding bands were blessed in the church in Cana as well, thanks to Father Francis. 

Before we got married, P and I were supposed to go to the Holy Land. However, we had to cancel the trip and what we did when we were on leave instead was to do a backyard pilgrimage of Marian churches as well as designated churches with Holy Doors of Mercy in Singapore, 2016 being the Jubilee Year of Mercy. It was such a blessed time.

As I entered Holy Cross*, the first church we visited, the stained glass window on the left caught my eye, it was the wedding at Cana, and we also arrived just as a wedding party was leaving. At SVDP, the pews were decorated with cream-coloured roses and ribbons, indicating a wedding was imminent. Every church we visited, we discovered a message of God’s promise, of joy. We didn’t have to travel abroad to hear Jesus and Mother Mary speak in our lives.

Cana speaks of many things: of love, love between mother and son, between the young couple, and the community who had come together to share in the couple’s nuptial bliss. Cana celebrates new beginnings, both of vocation and ministry. The passage tells us that things may not always go to plan, disaster may seem impending, but love is always on time and will save the day. Cana highlights how scarcity can become abundance when we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Cana recounts all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to make an event successful.

During this period, Cana reminds me life is to be celebrated even when I am struggling for miracles can only happen if I listen to our Mother’s advice, to do whatever He tells me even when I am tired, disgruntled, less than enthused, and about to give up. Keep going, never stopping to consider the needs of others, never desisting from doing what I know is right, and to always offer to Jesus the best of my efforts, together with my joy and gratitude at all I have received every day. 

Life is a wedding feast filled with colour, excitement, beauty and great joy. Drink it all in, live it sensuously, live it fully. Take the good with the bad for even the bad can transform into something very good.

* The churches we visited were Holy Cross, Risen Christ, Saint Vincent de Paul, Divine Mercy and Sacred Heart.