Pilgrimage of Faith

The road to Calvary begins at Cana. The Christmas stars and  trees have just been put away and the road to Calvary begins. The ‘Yes’ of a woman was the beginning of the Christmas season, again a request by the  same woman begins the road to Calvary.

For thirty years, Jesus lived away from the cameras and center stage. He came  into the world not to live a hidden life but to fulfill a given mission. Jesus was uncertain when and where to begin his mission. He needed someone to speak an encouraging word, someone to prod him on to the center stage, someone to believe in his ability and his God-given mission.

That someone was Mary, his mother. The place to begin the mission was Cana. By asking Jesus to provide the wine, she was asking him to begin his mission, to begin the road to Calvary, to begin the ‘hour’. How did Mary know that Jesus could work a miracle ? Jesus had not worked one before. Cana  was the ’first of his signs’. The disciples believed seeing the sign. Mary believed  before the miracle.   Thomas believed in the resurrection after he saw the wounds at his side. Jesus has Mary in mind when he told Thomas ’Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe’. It is the greatest tribute Jesus pays to Mary. It is the same blessedness that Elizabeth had sung thirty years before, ‘Blessed are you who believed.’ The true greatness of Mary is her ability to believe.  

Faith, Providence, God are in question today. Our generation has a natural aversion to all that cannot be calculated, counted, measured, seen and touched. Even those who have pledged to live only for God have more confidence in their bank balance than in providence. To a world that demands signs, that worship wealth, that seeks to be self sufficient, the Virgin Mary can teach a lesson or two. Her life is a witness that God exists, that providence provides, that  we can live on a promise.

May the virgin of Nazareth, teach us not to betray in the darkness of Calvary what we have received in the light.With Jesus let us pay tribute for her courageous pilgrimage of faith. May she who believed without signs and miracles teach us not to place our confidence in our bank balances, and self-sufficiency projects.   

-        Fr TVGeorge sdb