Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke in their Gospel accounts and Saint Paul in his Letters relate with striking similarity the institution of the Eucharistic Body and Blood of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine at the Last Supper. Considering that these matching reports were written well after the event and in different places is indeed an affirmation of the Eucharist’s importance to the Christian message. All the more notable then is the omission from St. John’s Gospel account of that moment of Eucharistic consecration: “…this is my Body…this is the cup of my Blood…” And the void is even more perplexing when the believer recalls that St. John otherwise devotes five whole chapters (13-18) to the Last Supper event! Saint John however was certainly not slack or careless. Knowing that his fellow evangelists had reported the first Eucharistic moment with diligence, St. John perhaps determined to expand the meaning of Christ’s gift of his Body and Blood rather than simply report it. Hence, the fourth Gospel’s unique account of the Wedding Feast at Cana and that Gospel’s Eucharistic discussion following the Multiplication of the Loaves should indeed be read and appreciated.
The Wedding Feast at Cana, to be heard at Mass this Sunday, is truly a celebration of generosity. First the wedding must have been a major celebration: Jesus, Mary and the disciples had all been invited. So it was a town wide event. And no one showed any restraint! They drank all the wine! Equally impressive was Mary’s thoughtfulness: “They have no more wine.” And even more impressive was Jesus’ lavish generosity: “Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ So they filled them to the brim.” These six jars would have provided 120 to 180 gallons of wine, or one thousand modern day bottles of wine. Jesus was certainly not stingy. And let’s not forget the glad remark of the chief steward: “You have kept the good wine until now!” Indeed perhaps the most important observation made by St. John on this event is his concluding words: “…and his disciples began to believe in him.” So there was generosity all around!
The later generosity of Jesus’ copiously shedding his blood on the Cross and sacramentally sharing that Blood with believers down through the ages through the wine consecrated at Mass was certainly and happily anticipated by Christ’s generosity at Cana. The words of the chief steward might well be repeated at every Mass: “You have kept the good wine until now!” Yes, the happiness at Cana was a faint anticipation of the happiness occasioned in the upper room when the blood soon to be shed at Calvary was sacramentally shared with the disciples who more and more “began to believe in him.”
St. John’s chapter six, of course, anticipates the solemn consecration of bread into the sacramental Body of Christ through his lengthy and focused thoughts following the multiplication of the loaves and the feeding of the “five thousand.” (St. Matthew in his account thoughtfully adds, “…not counting woman and children.”) Again like Cana, generosity is a key element. St. John even notes that “there was a great deal grass in that place.” Even the crowd’s comfort concerned Jesus. And again, Jesus is more than generous with his gifts. He provided more than they could eat. Twelve wicker baskets of left-overs were collected! And again, Jesus’ kindness results in more than sated appetites; “When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.’” At Cana, the disciples grew in faith; in the countryside, the crowds are introduced to faith.
The graces won by the bruising of Christ’s Body and the shedding of Christ’s Blood on the Cross are now generously dispensed by the sacramental sharing of that Body and that Blood through the Eucharist at Mass. The generosity of Christ at Cana and the generosity of Christ in the countryside were just hints of the generosity to be found in the sacramental life of the Church. Under the appearance of bread and wine, the Body to be given and the Blood to be poured out at Golgotha were generously afforded for the first time to the disciples in that Upper Room on the night before Jesus would suffer. That same generosity is afforded to all the faithful who accept the consecrated Host and the precious Blood Sunday after Sunday, even day after day, at the Church’s Eucharistic celebrations. St. John, rather than just giving his readers the facts, decided to give his audience their significance. Thus the writer’s words about Jesus happily “revealed his glory” and happily “his disciples began to believe in him.” And indeed we all must, as well.