‘Do Whatever He Tells You’

This is the message of the concerned mother of Jesus, Mary our mother too, when she confidently tells the servants at the wedding in Cana to follow whatever Jesus tells them to do.

Mary acts with full hope in her Son and indicates her rule of life of doing the will of God and telling others to do the same, no matter if God’s will seems to be incomprehensible, like filling jars with water when the problem is lack of wine.  She simply leaves it totally in her Son’s hands.

“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee…When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?  My hour has not yet come’. However his mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’…Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water’”(cf. Jn. 2:1-11).

The wedding episode demonstrates the perceptiveness and care of a woman in the face of others’ needs as well as the great partnership of Mary with her Divine Son in His saving mission, and in the proclamation of God’s glory through the changing of water into wine, the first of the miracles of Jesus.

As explained in Lumen Gentium no. 58, the lack of wine and the instruction to do God’s will are indications of a discernment approach—discerning a situation, and indicating how the negativity of a situation may be resolved through following God’s will in favor of the needy, the couple who run out of wine for their visitors.

Mary, following her own Son, shows again that she is on the side of the needy and has compassion for them.

This discernment approach – seeing the need and discerning God’s will also shows the way to respond to the need for greater participation of women in the ministries of the Church, in liturgy and service.

These traits of perceptiveness of others’ needs, compassion, caring, and intimate knowledge of the Lord are acquired through contemplation and prayerful attentiveness to God’s word that Mary as disciple showed when she visited and helped her elderly pregnant cousin Elizabeth, as well as when she gave her Fiat to the angel sent by God at the Annunciation.  May we cooperate with God’s grace in emulating Mary in seeing and acting with the eyes of compassion.