You will be called by a New Name

The prophet Isaiah knows very well how important names are to people-which is why he tries to cheer up the despondent Israelites by telling them: ‘’you will be called by a new name…… no longer are you to be named ‘Forsaken’, nor your land ‘Abandoned’, but you shall be called ‘My Delight’ and your land The Wedded.” The good news is that the Israelites are not going to be stuck with their old name ‘’Forsaken’’- for there is going to be a wedding. And just as the bride changes her name in the wedding, so the Israelites are going to get a brand-new name.

  Isaiah promises that the time will come when God will take his people to himself like a bridegroom takes his new bride, and there will be great rejoicing in this new relationship. So it is that Israel waits for the day and the hour when this great event will take place. They wait for the big wedding.

In today’s Gospel we hear from John that the wedding is on. At the festival of a Jewish wedding in Cana Jesus reveals his glory through his first great sign. It’s an unusual wedding for there are two bridegrooms! There is the bridegroom just married, and there is Jesus who is the real bridegroom. He is an invited guest at the wedding, but Jesus is the long-awaited bridegroom of Israel. Jesus will transform this private Jewish wedding into a great sign to show that the time has come when God will take his people to himself in a new way. Jesus has come as the bridegroom to claim his: bride, Israel.

  During the wedding feast the wine runs out and Mary expects Jesus to do something about it. Jesus’ negative answer to Mary underlines the point that he cannot be bound by family relationships, but only by his Father’s will. Mary’s final words, ‘’Do whatever he tells you,’’ recognize the supreme authority of Jesus and what he must do himself.

  There are six large stone jars used to provide water for the Jewish ritual of cleansing. Jesus tells the servants to fill these to the brim, and after they do this, they discover that the water has been changed into wine. All 120 gallons of it! When the steward tastes it, he compliments the bridegroom for keeping the best wine until last- but he is complimenting the wrong bridegroom! Again, the wrong name. Jesus is the one who has supplied choice wine in abundance, and in doing so has revealed his glory. When the disciples see what has happened, they believe in Jesus.

  The story gives us a marvelous image of the loving relationship we have with God through Jesus. Jesus has come to claim us as God’s own, and he is generous in the gifts he brings. There is nothing mean about Jesus in the story: not a thimbleful of plonk, but gallons of the choice stuff! Luke has the same point in his Gospel: ‘’Surely you cannot make the bridegroom’s attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them?’’ (5:34). It is not the time of fast, but the time of feast. And the feast is generous: ‘’from his fullness we have, all of us, received’’ (Jn 1:16).

Of course, the ultimate generosity of Jesus is shown when he dies for the love he has- when the bridegroom lays down his life for his bride. Jesus gives his whole self in love. He gives us his body and blood in this Eucharist so that we can be united with him and with our Father. So let us rejoice today that we know the name of the bridegroom and that he knows our name in love.