The Wedding at Cana

A meditation

Sit down at the table. It is a long white cloth and there is almost nothing on it — a covered dish, a plate, a knife. The wedding has run out of wine, and everyone knows it, and no one is saying anything. Look at the bride at the far end with her crown of flowers and her eyes down. This is her day, and it is going wrong.

Now look at the woman beside him. His mother has her hands together and she is looking at her son. She has already said it — *they have no wine* — and he has already answered her, and it was not the answer she wanted. And still she turned to the servants and said, *do whatever he tells you.* That is where the picture is now. She has trusted him with the outcome, and she is waiting.

Look at his hand. It is raised, just a little. He has not done anything yet. And at the front, in the corner, a servant is bending over a stone jar with a jug, pouring water in, because he was told to — pouring water into a wine jar, at a wedding that has run dry, on the word of a guest's mother. He does not know what will happen. He is doing it anyway.

You are the servant. Take the jug. Fill the jar all the way to the brim, the way the story says they did. You have been given something that makes no sense and been told to do it. Do it. She is still looking at him, and she was not wrong.