Catholic News Service
God likes to intervene behind the scenes and without fanfare, always ready to help and lift people up, Pope Francis said.
“And then, if we are attentive to these ‘signs,’ we will be conquered by his love, and we will become his disciples,” he said to visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 16 for his Sunday Angelus address.
The pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading (John 2:1-11) of the wedding at Cana and how the first of Jesus’ signs was transforming water into wine.
In the Gospel, a “sign” is “a clue that reveals God’s love, that does not call attention to the power of the action, but to the love that caused it,” the pope said.
“It teaches us something about God’s love that is always near, tender and compassionate.” Jesus’ first sign was in the middle of a wedding feast, when a couple faced a huge problem on the most important day of their lives when they ran out of wine. Aware of the problem, Mary discreetly brought it to Jesus’ attention, and “he intervened without fanfare, almost without making it obvious. Everything took place reservedly, everything took place ‘behind the scenes,'” when Jesus told the servants to fill the jars with water and then it became wine, the pope said.