Here is Sheed on the Miracle of Cana:
"For a second time we hear Mary speak “They have no wine.”…Reading his answer: “Woman what is that to me and to thee? My hour is not yet come.” – we would get the impression not only that he did not mean to solve it, but that he saw no reason why he should. Hearing his answer, she knew that he would. She had suggested a miracle, and she knew she would get it. She said to the waiters: “Do whatever he tells you,” and that is the last word we ever hear from her. If there must be a last word from her, there could hardly be better. …
Jesus’ words sound like a refusal – triply so; for he not only gave two reasons why he should take no action at all, he prefaced them with the word “Woman.” No one today would address his wife or mother as Woman, save in anger; and she would retort as angrily. The word Woman has become a term of contempt. One wonders why. The progress of civilization, perhaps. Certainly it was not in the time of Jesus. It was formal, rather ceremonial perhaps, not for everyday use: the Roman Emperor Augustus officially addressed Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, as Woman.
The phrase, “What is that to me and to thee? …contains some element of negation, at its best something like: “Let’s leave it alone.” or “Why should we concern ourselves?” …But how could he work a miracle after having said, “My hour is not yet come.”…Once he has begun is public teaching, it always means the time he should die and be glorified by his Father. That meaning would not fit here. Evidently it means that the moment has not come to show his power to the eyes of men.
Then two surprises: Mary knows that he will show it all the same. One minute his hour has not yet come, the next it had….Mary could have asked him to work a miracle thus publicly only at the command of the Holy Spirit: it was not in her nature to thrust bright ideas of her own on her Son. She asked him as she was bid, and the Holy Spirit moved him to do what she asked. Thus Mary, who by her obedience had brought her Son into life, now by his obedience brought him into public life."
I love writers like Sheed also. Although very different, I find the same kind of exegesis in Fr. Robert Barron’s books – things that stick in your mind long after having read them.
Here are some reading selections from “And Now I See” – click about and see if you like it or not.
payingattentiontothesky.com/reading-selections-from-and-now-i-see/
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