It wasn’t as if they weren’t welcome—especially Mary’s son, now a tall, grown man.  But no one had been sure that he, much less his new and rather plain friends, would appear.  Appear they did, and before long you could feel worry circulating like a current of cold air.  There are certain deficiencies that simply must not occur at a wedding feast, and the worst one of all was beginning to be suspected at this wedding feast. 

The whole male company was sitting more or less, merrily at dinner on the day following the arrival of the late guests, but the talk was not what it had been.  The groom scarcely looked the part.  He was trying to eat, and pretending not to notice the empty cups on the tables.  On either side of him his father and his bride’s father struggled to converse with their nearest neighbor.  At the foot of one of the tables, the biggest of the arrivals from the south, the one they called Simon, was telling how sumptuously weddings were celebrated.  He recalled his own in his hometown, Capharnaum. 

At another table, Mary’s son was sitting quietly.  He appeared to have a drop of wine left in his cup, for occasionally he raised it to his lips. And then it happened very quickly.  Mary of Nazareth came out of the kitchen--a graceful and quiet woman, carrying a tray as if to gather up dishes.  But she made straight for where her son was sitting, and standing behind him, leaning a little toward him, she said something in a low voice.  He turned immediately, and for a moment his face lit up as it always did when he saw his mother. 

Then his expression went blank, even a mite severe.  He talked briefly, earnestly, to his mother.  She said nothing, just stood there looking at him.  For a minute it was like a tableau: the two of them seemed unaware that everyone was watching them.  And then the son of Mary smiled.  He made a slight movement as if shrugging his shoulders.  His Mother smiled back and at her smile the whole room grew bright.  She put out her hand and laid it for a moment on her son’s shoulder.  Then she turned back to the kitchen, only pausing to say a word to the waiters who were standing uncertainly together.  Her son was already rising from his place.

 In short order the feast was a real feast again.  Every wine cup was filled and filled again.  The man named Simon was saying that Cana wasn’t such a bad place, after all.  And the lynx-eyed man on the left of Mary’s son, clutching his cup, was vehemently telling him how much he would have made on this year’s crops if his rock-headed brother hadn’t bungled the whole deal. 

In a moment of quiet someone said what everyone was thinking: “There you are.  She can do anything with him.”

 A reflection on the Gospel for the Second Sunday after Epiphany (John 2:3-4) Condensed from The Gospel of Now by Fr. Vincent McCorry, SJ.  © 1968, Herder & Herder, NY, and as originally appeared in America magazine.