Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Mary Teaches Us How to Follow Christ

In the Gospel of John, we have heard the last words uttered by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Bible -- "Do whatever he tells you." Mary doesn't speak often in the Sacred Scriptures, but every time she does speak, her words overflow with wisdom. And this is no exception.

Life is full of challenges, surprises, and temptations, and it's easy to get distracted. With her last words in the Bible, the Blessed Virgin Mary gives us the three keys to stay on-task in our efforts to follow Christ and discover the happiness that only he can give. Let's look at these three keys one by one and see how we can apply them to our lives.

I: Attitude of Creative Service

The first key is an attitude of creative service. Mary was not in charge of this wedding at Cana. In the ancient world, it was always the bride's father who was in charge.

Weddings were some of the very few occasions in ancient times when common, working-class people could take time off to celebrate and enjoy themselves. As a result, most weddings would include five to seven days of festivities.

But the interesting thing is that the head caterer (the "headwaiter"), the one who was responsible for providing food and drink throughout the wedding festivities, was not the one who noticed that the wine was running short.

Instead, it was the Blessed Virgin Mary. Even in the midst of a rollicking party, a wedding feast where she was a guest and not a hostess, she kept her attention on the needs of others.

She didn't become so self-absorbed in having a good time that she forgot about those around her. Instead, she recognized the potential disaster, and then she took the initiative to do something about it – to help avert the great embarrassment and disappointment that running out of wine would cause to the bride's family. That was Mary's habitual approach to life: she always fostered an attitude of creative service.

She kept her eyes open for opportunities to help others, and she took the initiative to seize those opportunities. This is how she reflected in her own day-to-day life the goodness and generosity of God, who is always thinking of us and providing for us and watching over us.

An attitude of creative service is the first key to being a true follower of Christ. St Vincent Pallotti said it well: "Remember that the Christian life is one of action; not of speech and daydreams... In heaven we shall rest."

II: Confidence in Jesus

The second key is unbounded confidence in Jesus. Mary noticed the problem, and she wanted to do something about it. But what exactly could she do?

She was not a rich woman, and there was no Park 'n Shop in Cana where she could go to buy a few more gallons of cheap wine. Even though she didn't have the resources to solve the problem all by herself, she knew exactly who did have the resources: her son. And so she goes to Jesus, catches his eye, and simply puts the need before him: "They have no wine."

She knows her son very well. She knows that his heart is full of goodness, mercy, and love. She knows that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, omnipotent. And so, she approaches him with total confidence and openness, knowing that the unique combination of infinite love and unlimited omnipotence will be able to solve this problem.

That's how we need to approach Jesus. He is our Savior; he came to earth for our sake – as we pray each week in the Creed. He loves us without condition, and his infinite wisdom and power are at the service of that love.

Even when Jesus doesn't answer our prayers the way we would like him to, we can be certain that he knows what he is about. In our needs, in our confusion, in our troubles and sufferings, we should make Mary's prayer our own: "They – we, I – have no wine…"

Confidence in Jesus – trust in the incomparable combination of his limitless love, power, and wisdom. This is the second key to spiritual maturity.

III: Obedience to God's Will

But Mary doesn't stop with a mere attitude of confidence in Jesus. She puts her confidence into practice.

After Jesus gives her a rather ambiguous answer to her prayer, she turns to the waiters and gives them the best piece of advice that any human being has ever given anyone: "Do whatever he tells you."

The true test of our confidence in God's goodness and power is our obedience to his will. If we truly believe that God is our Father, our Savior, and our King, we will obey his commandments and his teachings; we will "do whatever he tells" us. Inspired by Mary's confidence, these waiters do exactly that.

They can't imagine why Jesus tells them to fill up these huge stone containers with water. Logically speaking, that's not going to help the situation at all. And physically speaking, that's a lot of work. Only Mary's confidence in Jesus, overflowing into their own hearts and minds, gave them the faith they needed to obey. And as a result, they became part of a miracle and saved the day.

The same thing happens in our own lives. Amid life's difficulties and temptations, obeying God's commandments and the teaching of the Church often appears illogical: everyone else is using contraception, it must be OK, everyone else is doing in vitro fertilization, and it's perfectly legal after all, everyone else is doing drugs and having sex before marriage and living together, what could possibly be wrong with it?

During pressure from popular culture, obeying Church teaching often seems to be too much work: How can we fit daily prayer into our busy schedules? How can we possibly afford another child? Sunday Mass is such an inconvenience, why can't I just pray out in nature? How can we find time to visit the sick and imprisoned, to feed the hungry, to instruct the ignorant and love our neighbor as ourselves?

And yet, whenever we allow Mary's confidence in Jesus to overflow into our own hearts and minds, we too will find enough faith to obey what God, in his infinite love and wisdom, asks of us, and then we too will become part of a miracle and save the day.

Conclusion: Following Mary to Christ

The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Heaven and Mother of God, is teaching us today how to follow Christ, how to become a mature Christian: By imitating her attitude of creative service, by sharing in her confidence in Jesus, and by joining her obedience to God's will, we will travel surely and swiftly along the path of a truly fulfilling, meaningful, and everlasting life.

As we continue with this Mass, let's ask her to intercede on our behalf, just as she did for the newlyweds at Cana, so that even when we don't seem to have any wine left in our hearts, God's grace will still flow freely in us and through us.