Why did Christ begin His ministry by attending the wedding at Cana of Galilee?

St. Augustine says, “The Lord, in that He came to the marriage to which He was invited, wished, apart from the mystical signification, to assure us that marriage was His own institution. For there were to be those of whom the apostle spoke, forbidding to marry (1 Tim. 4:3), and asserting that marriage was an evil, and of the devil’s institution.”¹⁷²⁰

St. Cyril, the Great says, “Himself also being bidden Comes together with His own disciples, to work miracles rather than to feast with them, and yet more to sanctify the very beginning of the birth of man: I mean so far as appertains to the flesh. For it was fitting that He, Who was renewing the very nature of man, and refashioning it all for the better, should

1717 St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to Polycarp 5.2 (ANF 1:95).

1718 Tertullian, To My Wife (Ad Uxorem) 2.8 (ANF 4:48) amended.

1719 St. Jerome, St. Jerome, Letters 48.11 (NPNF II/6:71). 1720

St. Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 9.2 (NPNF I/7:63).

not only impart His blessing to those already called into being, but also prepare before grace for those soon to be born, and make holy their entrance into being…

“It had been said to the woman by God, In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children (Gen. 3:16). How then was it not needful that we should thrust off this curse too, or how else could we escape a condemned marriage? This too the Saviour, being loving to man, removes. For He, the Delight and Joy of all, honoured marriage with His Presence, that He might expel the old shame of childbearing. For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation and old things have passed away , as Paul says, they are become new (2 Cor. 5:17).”¹⁷²¹

“The Savior does not go to the wedding of his own accord but because he was invited by the many voices of the saints. But the wine failed the feasters, for the law perfected nothing; the Mosaic letter did not suffice for perfect gladness. Neither did the measure of implanted sobriety reach the point where it could save us.”¹⁷²²