The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Ver. 11. — This beginning, &c. Glory, i.e., His Omnipotence and Divinity. And believed, i.e., their faith grew.
Beginning. From hence the Fathers gather passim that this miracle was absolutely the first which Christ publicly wrought. This is the refutation of the book on the “ Infancy of the Saviour,” condemned by Gelasius, which was forged by the heretics ; and in which it is related that Christ publicly wrought miracles when He was yet a boy. Yet there is no reason, says Maldonatus, against our thinking that Christ may have wrought miracles privately before, and may by them have assisted the poverty of His parents. It might seem as if His Mother, animated by the recollection of such, had here asked for, and expected, a similar miracle. But Christ could have relieved His Mother’s wants by some special providence short of a miracle.
You will ask why Christ willed this to be His first miracle? I reply, because it was especially appropriate to the time, the place, and the persons. For wine is the most noble beverage, which makes glad both God and man (Judges ix. 13). Wherefore Noah, immediately after the Deluge, discovered wine, and was a type of Christ here making wine. Again, Christ by this miracle showed that He is the self-same Being who, year by year, does the same thing in the vines by converting their watery sap into wine. “ The only difference is,” as S. Chrysostom says, “that in the vine-tree He effects by a process extending over a considerable time what He did at the marriage in a moment.” For what else is wine but water changed by the rays of the sun ?
The symbolical reason is, because wine is the most fitting symbol of the grace, charity, devotion, fervour, strength, with which Christ indues His own. Whence S. Bernard says (in Sentent.): “ The wine in the cup of God has a threefold colour. It is red in the long-suffering of the saints. This made Isaac glad in his sickness. It is white in the recompense of the just. With this was Noah inebriated . It is black and sour in the damnation of the wicked. Of this Jesus tasted, but would not drink.”
Allegorically, the reason was because this marriage represented the marriage union of Christ with human nature, which took place in His Incarnation. Wherefore it was celebrated on the third day, that is, in the third stage of the world. For the first state was the law of nature, the second was the law of Moses, the third is the law of Christ. It was done in Galilee of the Gentiles, because Christ calls all the Gentiles to His marriage with our humanity. Also it was done in Cana of Galilee, i.e., in the transmigration of the possession , or the Christian people, which is Christ’s possession, bought with His own Blood, and therefore it passes from earth to heaven. In His possession Christ gives wine, i.e ., the doctrine and grace of the Gospel, which makes glad and inebriates the soul. Here also He changes wine into His Blood in the Eucharist.
Tropologically, the reason was that by these nuptials and by wine He signified the union, and as it were the marriage of our soul, through grace and charity, with God. The Mother of Jesus was there, that is, virginal chastity, and the simple faith of the disciples of Jesus, such faith as when humbly acknowledging the wine of our devotion and fervour is failing, we entreat Him to bestow it upon us. Then He changes the insipidity of our soul into the good wine of His heavenly grace, by which we refresh and inebriate, not only ourselves , but others, and make them to glow with the love of God.
Anagogically, the marriage of the Lamb will be perfected in heaven. There Christ will give us new wine and Divine nectar. He will inebriate us out of the fatness of the house of God, and will give us to drink of the torrent of His pleasures.
Ver. 12. — After this Jesus went down , &c. After the marriage Jesus returned with His Mother and friends to their house at Nazareth . Nazareth was situated upon higher ground, so that He would descend from it to Capharnaum, which was on ground sloping down to the Sea of Galilee. The reason why He went was because He did not wish to make Nazareth, a poor and ignoble town, and by whose inhabitants He was despised as a carpenter, and the son of a carpenter, the headquarters of His preaching. For this He destined Capharnaum, which was by the sea-side, and famous for its commerce and concourse of people, so that He might have more fruit of His ministry.
Now this journey of Christ took place before the imprisonment of John the Baptist, as may be clearly gathered from chaps. iii. 24 and iv. 1. It was different therefore from that of which S. Matthew speaks (iv. 13). For that took place after John was put in prison, when Christ actually transferred His place of abode to Capharnaum, and there opened a public school of His doctrine and teaching. The present occasion was only preparatory. This visit was only by the way, as it were in transitu , intending to proceed from hence to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, which was now nigh at hand. So Jansen.
And His brethren, i.e., His cousins, James the Less, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Matt. xiii. 55). Also John and James the Greater.
And the Passover , &c. This was the first Passover after Christ's baptism.
Vers. 14, 15, 16. — And He found in the Temple, &c. I have explained all these things in S. Matthew xxi. 12. Observe, however, that this was a different driving out of the buyers and sellers from that recorded in the 21st of S. Matthew, which occurred very shortly before Christ's passion. But this took place at the very beginning of His ministry.
Ver. 17. — His disciples remembered, &c. This zeal of Christ was righteous indignation, says Euthymius, or rather ardour to do away with what was repugnant to God’s honour, so that He boldly exposed Himself, His life and His good name, to defend the honour of God, whom He loved above all things. For Christ did this before the proud and covetous Scribes and Pharisees, who opposed Him. The meaning then is, “ The zeal, that is, the burning desire, of caring for the glory of Thy Temple, in which thou, O Lord, dwellest as Thine abode, and the indignation which I have conceived against the traders who profane it, have eaten , that is, have absorbed Me.” Symmachus translates consumed Me, as fire eats away iron, and so transmutes it into itself, that it no longer seems to be iron, but fire itself.
S. Augustine asks, “ Who is eaten up with zeal for the house of God ? ” and answers, “ He who strives to amend everything which he sees amiss. He does not rest if he cannot rectify it. He groans and says within himself, ‘ My zeal has caused me to consume away because mine enemies have forgotten Thy words’” (Ps. cxix. 139). Wherefore Bede saith, on this passage, “ Let us have zeal for the house of God, my brethren. If we see a brother who belongs to the house of God swelling with pride, given to detraction, a slave to drunkenness, enervated with luxury, disturbed by anger, or subject to any other fault, let us strive, so far as in us lies, to rebuke him, to amend what is corrupt and perverse. And if we are powerless to amend any of these things, let us not endure them without the most bitter grief. And especially in the house of prayer, where the Body of God is consecrated, where without doubt the angels are always present, let no folly take place, let us strive with all our might that nothing may hinder our own, or our brethren’s prayers.”
Ver. 18. — The Jews therefore answered , &c. Meaning, what miracle dost Thou show, that Thou takest upon Thyself, contrary to the custom, to cast the sellers out of the Temple, as having received authority from God : for from man, that is, from pontiff or governor, we know Thou hast none ? For Christ had intimated that He was sent by God, yea, that He was the Son of God ; for He had said (ver. 16), Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise . They ask Him therefore to prove that He was the Son of God, and Messiah, even the Lord of the Temple.