Now you know why....

Paolo Veronese - Wedding at Cana (click to enlarge)

This Sunday in our liturgical readings we read the story of the first miracle of Jesus, changing the water into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. This was an embarrassing situation for the bride and the groom that they ran out of wine, even though Jesus came to the rescue and saved the day for the unlucky-turned-lucky couple. Well, if you look at just one of the paintings of the wedding at Cana, you can see why they ran out of wine. Moreover the disciples of Jesus were present too, and sure enough, having Peter, James, John, Thomas, Philip and the rest of the crew must have been a big source of concern for Jesus, and no wonder he had to do something to save the day. Understand that it wasn't just the 12 apostles, but the disciples were also present, which could have been as many as 72! Now you know why they ran out of wine! Those disciples were probably heavy drinkers and they drained the supply of wine that was reserved for that happy day. An interesting quote comes from Richard Crashaw who wrote about this miracle: "The conscious water saw its God, and it blushed." Beautiful phrase that says it all.

The painting hanging in the Louvres - just to see how massive it is.