The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C

The Second Sunday of Epiphany

Isaiah 62.1–5
1 Corinthians 12.1–11
John 2.1–11

The story of the wedding at Cana is an intriguing one. The dynamic between Jesus and his mother is fascinating, as is the nature of the miracle.

The Gospels that emerged in the first few Christian centuries, under the guidance of God, as the ‘canonical’ ones are very reticent about Jesus’ childhood. John and Mark don’t mention it at all; Matthew goes straight from the Christmas stories to the baptism of Jesus; and Luke has one story of the 12-year-old boy in the temple. Some of the other writings that were circulating among Christians in the early centuries are not so restrained. They tell stories of a miraculous boyhood, of a child whittling a bird out of wood and then giving it life to fly away. Considering the human temptation to biographies, it is very interesting that the common mind of the Church rejected these stories as not essential to our faith. There are all kinds of reasons for this, but one thing that is noticeable about the four Gospels that we base our lives on is their drivenness – they tell a story that leads inexorably to the cross, and nothing is included that is not vital to that story...