CHURCH AT CANA

Cana is a worthy counterpart of Nazareth, and arouses in the heart of the pilgrim memories full not only of charm and sweetness, but also of salutary lessons.

At Nazareth up to the age of thirty years Jesus led a hidden life in perfect obedience to his parents. At Cana he began his public life by assisting with his disciples at a wedding. Cana hears the first intercessions of the Virgin Mary with her divine Son. At the mother’s prayer the Saviour works his first miracle, which by its nature and surroundings produced so great an impression in the whole of Palestine.

It is impossible to read without deep emotion that passage of the Gospel, or to hear the words whispered by Mary to her son: “They have no wine”; followed by the apparent refusal of Jesus which aimed at rendering more manifest the power of the mother’s intercession and by the calm security with which the Virgin disposes His will.

His mother saith to the waiters: “Do whatever he tells you”; Jesus had just said to her: “Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come yet”. And Mary, by her will, makes that hour strike, the hour of grace, of infinite mercy, which will flow for ever from the divine source of love, for the comfort of disinherited mankind (John 2, 1-11).

The memorial of the wedding is to be seen in the Parish Church built by the Franciscans in 1879 upon the remains of an old sanctuary of the 6^th century.

Source: Guide to the Holy Land by Eugene Hoade