The Wine That Never Runs Dry
Michiel Peeters - At this wedding in the tiny town of Cana, Jesus wasn’t planning to do any sign: He was there with his new friends to share life, to make Himself known to them by simply staying together. But he could not refuse his Mother anything. “They have no wine.” At a wedding, where everyone expected an abundance of food and wine, to say, “There is no wine anymore,” is the same as saying, “They will have no joy.”
“They will have no joy.” They live, they learn things, they work, they marry, they have children, they die, but they have no joy.
Christ is moved because this is the reason He has come. “Men and women have no joy.” What makes people joyful?
Firstly, being preferred—and the greater the one preferring us, the greater our joy.
Secondly, being forgiven. Unfortunately, this is an experience that contemporary men and women often don’t know. Usually, after a mistake, one tries to “start” again with completely different people and circumstances. But to be forgiven means to be rebuilt where you are so that all the good that was also done is saved, too.
The third source of human joy is when our lives are made fruitful, when we can be constructive, useful, and fruitful and leave a trace.
Christ has come for this. To let the wine of the wedding feast that our lives should be, never lack. To make us realize we are preferred, and not just for some time, for some gain… To let us have the experience of forgiveness, this possibility to start anew again and again, without the need to forget or censor anything… And to permit our lives to be profoundly constructive instead of being casual, pastime, spending our energy on something or someone that doesn’t love us.
The Apostles learned this—who Christ was, for them and for the world—by staying with Him, following Him, engaging with Him, listening to His words, seeing His acts, and comparing them with their hearts, day after day.
But how can we participate in this possibility for joy 2,000 years later? In precisely the same way. Staying in His company, in the company He created and in which He claims to continue to be present. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” We can realize our being preferred (it can become our gaze on our lives); we can continuously be lifted up by His forgiveness; and our lives can begin to desire to be fruitful and be really constructive – when we decide to follow as the Apostles did. There is no other way to verify Christ, to see his ‘usefulness’ for our lives, to see if, in His presence, the water of our days can become wine, too. This is how “his disciples began to believe in him.”
And this experience of abundant wine at the feast of our lives, this experience of joy that can be shared, brings about a profound unity among us. We are in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Christ prays: “that they may all be one, [so] that the world may believe that you sent me.” This unity among people—the greatest miracle, something we absolutely aren’t able to bring about by ourselves, the pure fruit of the presence of a “unifying energy”—is brought about when we participate in a present possibility for joy, in a present experience of joy. We just need to decide if we want this wine, if this joy interests us.
The author has not revised its text and translation.
