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The Wedding at Cana

Lou Giorgetti


  
The Wedding At Cana, by Paolo Veronese
Scott 816 and 818 (1988)

The story of the Wedding at Cana is presented in the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Two stamps issued by Vatican City in 1988, displayed above, show details from a painting of the event by the artist Paolo Veronese. Here is a look at Veronese's masterpiece:


The Wedding At Cana, by Paolo Veronese
Located at the Louvre (Paris, France)
Photographer Unknown
From Wikimedia Commons (in the public domain)


The Liturgical Calendar has now moved three weeks past Christmas. The three Sundays since Christmas Day have celebrated the following:
  • Feast of the Holy Family
  • Feast of the Epiphany
  • Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

    The last feast marks the end of the Christmas calendar.

    The traditional Gospel reading for the next Sunday on the Church calendar (the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time) retells the story of the Wedding at Cana. This is the third event of the “Theophany", which includes the visit of the Magi to the newborn Jesus Christ, the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, and the wedding at Cana. The three events symbolize the physical manifestation of Jesus to the world.

    At the Wedding at Cana, Jesus performs his first “sign” presented in the Bible. The Gospel for the day, according to Saint John (John 2:1-11), reads as follows:
    “There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

    When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.’

    His mother said to the servers, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, ‘Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.’ So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from—although the servers who had drawn the water knew—the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.’

    Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him."
    In addition to the stamps at the top of this article, the Wedding at Cana is also pictured on one of the stamps from the 49th International Eucharistic Congress issue from 2008. It is one of three events on the €0.60stamp (which also shows the Washing of the Feet of the Apostles and the Last Supper):


    49th Eucharistic Congress Issue
    Scott 1386 (2008)


    REFERENCES
  • United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, www.usccb.org, Daily Readings, January 19, 2025
  • UFN, September 29, 1988, Fourth Centenary of the Death of the Painter Paolo Veronese
  • UFN, May 15, 2008, 49th International Eucharistic Congress
  • Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search