What “The Chosen” Gets Wrong About Cana- Part II

The retelling of the miracle at Cana in “The Chosen” diverges from the Biblical narrative in a way that is problematic, especially for Catholics. We dealt with the first part of the dialogue between Jesus and Mary in Part I.  Now in the Gospel narrative of the Miracle at Cana, only one phrase remains: “Do whatever he tells you”.

The trust and obedience of the woman are absolutely essential to the Biblical rendition of the Cana story. Unfortunately, this is not helped by the dialogue in “The Chosen”. Certainly, in the episode, we see the faith of Mary who has no doubt that her Son can solve the wine shortage, but her insistence that Jesus do her bidding clashes with the entire Biblical portrayal of Mary.

Surely the other phrases placed on Mary’s lips in “The Chosen” are legitimate, you might think? When she says in the Gospel, “They have no wine”, isn’t she really drawing attention to the humiliating situation facing the family? And isn’t she pleading with Jesus to do something about it, even if the Scriptural dialogue is very condensed? Yes, it cannot be denied that Mary wishes to save this family’s blushes, and she is asking Jesus to intervene on their behalf. But the manner in which the “woman” acts in initiating Jesus’ “hour” is crucial. The manner in which Mary intervenes in “The Chosen” is not in keeping with the wider Biblical portrayal of the mother of Jesus and is not justified by the text of John’s Gospel.

The Biblical Portrayal of Mary

In many ways, Mary is the hidden woman in the New Testament. It is only in Luke’s Gospel that we have accounts of the Annunciation, Visitation, Presentation, and Finding in the Temple. The Acts of the Apostles (also written by Luke) mentions that Mary was present in the upper room praying with the disciples in the period before Pentecost. Despite the frugal nature of the Scriptural references to Mary, these manifest a striking unity and harmony.

At the Annunciation, Mary bows her head to the angel and says, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). This humble adherence of Mary to God’s word is corroborated by the words of Elizabeth at the Visitation. It is significant that Elizabeth is described as saying these words under the influence of the Holy Spirit, giving them particular force: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45). Following the birth of Jesus, we are told that “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Similarly, after the Finding in the Temple and the Presentation, the Evangelist says again that “his mother treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51). Throughout all of these episodes, there is a powerful sense of Mary’s absolute adherence to God’s words, her trust in them, her ever-deepening self-abandonment into the Lord’s providential plan for her life.

This picture is enhanced by two episodes that are described later in the Gospels. Curiously, these episodes have a slightly enigmatic feel to them, similar to the dialogue between mother and son at Cana. Like Cana, they are often misinterpreted as involving a rebuke by Jesus of Mary. The first event is found in all three Synoptic Gospels:

And he was told: ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.’ But he answered them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it’” (Luke 8:20-21).

The second episode is recorded only by Luke:

“As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!’ But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’” (Luke 11:27-28)

Jesus Does NoT Rebuke His Mother

Many scholars, as well as figures such as St John Paul II, have reflected that these statements by Jesus are not rebukes at all. They are rather implicit affirmations that his mother is primarily characterised by her adherence to the word of God, not by the fact that she bore him in the flesh. Elizabeth, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, stated clearly that Mary is blessed because of the way she clung to God’s word. Now, the second person of the Trinity is re-affirming that Mary’s primary source of blessedness is the manner in which she submits to God’s word. Perhaps it is in Mark’s rendition that this intention of Jesus is clearest: “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35).

Mary’s Response in the Chosen

Let us return to the way Mary responds in “The Chosen” to Jesus’ apparent reluctance to heed her plea. Of course, once we appreciate Jesus’ words in their Biblical context, then we see that it was not his intention to pour cold water (no pun intended) on his mother’s request. Rather, Jesus makes a rhetorical statement that prompts us to take a wider perspective on what is about to happen, how this event will culminate in his “hour”, and a challenge to respond in faith. But how did Mary herself interpret her Son’s words? She was immersed in God’s word and knew her Son like no other, but, at that moment, would she have understood what Jesus intended? We do not know, and it is not important. In fact, this is the very point at issue. What Mary wanted, what Mary understood Jesus to mean, what Mary believed was going to happen, none of these are important. As she had always done, as the wider Scriptural account makes clear, Mary bowed before the will of God and forgot her own needs and plans. When she turned to the servants to say, “Do whatever he tells you”, she was saying to them: “The situation may be grave. You have no wine left. However, place yourselves in the hands of my Son and that will be sufficient. If he wishes for you to have wine, then it will happen, but if he tells you to continue without wine and make do with water, then so be it.”

Faith and Trust

This might be a good place to make a distinction between two different uses of the term “faith”. Sometimes by “faith”, we refer to the belief that Jesus is Lord, that he has the power to work miracles, that he can change water into wine. But “faith” can also refer to adherence to God’s word, self-abandonment to his plan, absolute trust in his loving providence. It is this second type of faith that characterizes Abraham. This faith also believes that the Lord can do miracles, but the overriding characteristic is obedient trust in God’s word. The Syrophoenician woman demonstrates to Jesus the first type of faith when she asks him to heal her daughter. Jesus’ contrary reply challenges her to deepen the second kind of faith – adherence to the Lord even through difficulty.

The Mary of Scripture is a model of this more profound type of faith, and she manifests it again at Cana. She could not have known what Jesus was going to do, but she trusted – as she always did – that if we place ourselves in his hands and are obedient to his words, then everything will come good, even if things do not turn out as we would have originally wished. This attitude is lacking in the Mary of “The Chosen”. She is well-intentioned and wants to do good. She also has plenty of the first type of faith, but her repeated pleas make her appear lacking in the second. She does not display the attitude of one who is willing to bow before God’s word, come what may. 

In this respect, “The Chosen” is a little too “Catholic”, though it is a form of Catholicism that needs to be careful in the way it portrays Mary’s intercessory power. Christ is the one mediator between God and his people, but Catholics still believe in the role of Mary and the saints as advocates for humanity. This intercessory role does not damage in any way the pre-eminent significance of Christ. A traditional way of describing the process is as follows: A man wishes to offer a gift to his king but all he has is a simple apple. He gives the apple to the queen, who places it on a beautiful silver tray and brings it to the king, thereby greatly enhancing the gift.

Mary Lifts our Gifts to God

In the same way, Mary and the saints have a role in lifting up our gifts and pleas to the Lord. They lived lives of great holiness and are closer to him than we are presently. Furthermore, they are in communion with us by virtue of our one baptism. God has willed that humans relate to him as a single body, each part complementing and completing the others. One of the ways that Mary and the saints complement the entire body is by presenting and perfecting our pleas for grace. Mary has a particularly powerful role in this regard. In the Old Testament, many of the Davidic lines of kings had multiple wives, but they each had only one mother. For that reason, it was the mother of the king who bore the title of “queen”. She often had a special role in interceding with her son on behalf of her subjects. We see this in particular during the reign of Solomon when his mother, Bathsheba, fulfilled this position of intercessor. The Catholic understanding of Mary’s role as intercessor sees this Old Testament precedent as providing an important Biblical foundation.

The Role of Advocate

However, it is important that the role of advocate be understood properly. Some overly “Catholic” versions of Mary’s role interpret the Cana event to mean that she can “twist Jesus’ arm” to do things he would never have done otherwise. And while it is true that we can speak of prayer as “wrestling” with God, as Jacob did, it must also be recognized that such language is largely metaphorical. Insistence on the fulfilment of one’s own will is not in keeping with the model of discipleship that is being proposed in John’s Gospel. 

If Mary and the saints are successful in their recourse to God on our behalf, these are things that God had every intention of doing anyway. Mary’s role is not to change God’s mind about some course of action, but to unite herself with the person on whose behalf she is interceding, to place herself humbly before God, trusting in his benevolence, convinced that what he does will be for the good, even if we do not presently understand his actions, nor see where they are leading. This is Mary’s attitude now in heaven, and it was surely her attitude also at Cana. 

Discipleship

In fact, at Cana, we have a quite spectacular example of the kind of discipleship that Christ is seeking. Mary has no idea what Jesus will do, but she still shows total trust in the efficacy of his word when she tells the servants to do whatever he tells you. It is no accident that these are the only words spoken by Mary in response to the enigmatic reply of Jesus. As Francis J. Moloney remarks, she is the first person in the Gospel narrative to show that “the correct response to the person of Jesus is trust in his word” (Moloney, p68). This unconditional faith and trust is the “trigger” that leads to the miracle. The difficulty with “The Chosen” rendition of events is that Mary’s continued pleas are what lead to the miracle.

Fathers of the Church

Some people may object to the way we have taken issue with these few small words and phrases in “The Chosen”. Does the reference to “woman”, for example, really carry such significance?  You do not have to take the word of this article for it: the Fathers of the Church, both in the West and the East, repeatedly reflected on the Protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 in similar terms. For Justin Martyr (d. circa 163), Irenaeus (d. circa 200), Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258), Ambrose (d. 397), and others, this was an important theme. In their writings, they reflected how the evil one had obtained dominion over humanity through a woman, and how, through the offspring of a woman, redemption would be won. Jesus’ reference to the “woman” in Cana was a telling sign that the hour of restoration is at hand.

The Chosen

But can we really expect a filmed dramatization of the Cana event to be able to cater to all of these theological overtones? Maybe it is well-nigh impossible and that is why the “The Chosen” had to make do with a “dumbed down” version of the narrative? In other challenging scenes, however, the creators of this series show themselves to be more than adept at conveying deep Biblical truths in dramatized form. In two other “difficult” passages from John’s Gospel – the meeting with Nicodemus and the encounter with the woman at the well – the rewriting of the dialogue is done quite brilliantly. Exchanges that might seem a little disjointed in the Gospel are altered slightly so that the dialogues flow in a natural and convincing fashion without losing their original meaning.

In short, the creators of this series show time and again that they don’t need to “dumb down” anything. They are capable of telling the Gospel stories with verve and imagination whilst still being faithful to the Gospels. They also show that they can develop the characters of Biblical figures in such a way as to amplify the impact of their words when they speak lines that are actually contained in Scripture. The portrayal of Nicodemus is done is a particularly skilled way. We see him struggling with his faith in Jesus whilst trying to remain faithful to his life as a Pharisee. Even the character of the wife of Nicodemus is developed in a way that enhances the telling of the story of her husband. Admittedly, the story of Cana presents a challenge for dramatization, but if anyone can do it well, it is the creators of “The Chosen”.

REFERENCES

Moloney, Francis J., The Gospel of John, Sacra Pagina 4, edited by Daniel J. Harrington, 1998.

Schnackenburg, Rudolf, The Gospel According to St John, 3 vols, 1968-1982.

Unger, Dominic J., “Patristic Interpretation of the Protoevangelium”, Marian Studies, Volume 12, Article 10, pp.111-164, 1961.