she is the one woman in the world to
whom the son owes his earthly existence; and though the title "Mother"
belongs to every woman who has earned the honors of maternity, yet to no
child is there more than one woman whom by natural right he can address
by that title of respectful acknowledgment. When, in the last dread
scenes of His mortal experience, Christ hung in dying agony upon the
cross, He looked, down upon the weeping Mary, His mother, and commended
her to the care of the beloved apostle John, with the words: "Woman,
behold thy son!"[333] Can it be thought that in this supreme moment, our
Lord's concern for the mother from whom He was about to be separated by
death was associated with any emotion other than that of honor,
tenderness and love?[334]

Nevertheless, His words to Mary at the marriage feast may have conveyed
a gentle reminder of her position as the mother of a Being superior to
herself; even as on that earlier occasion when she had found her Boy,
Jesus, in the temple, He had brought home to her the fact that her
jurisdiction over Him was not supreme. The manner in which she told Him
of the insufficiency of wine probably suggested an intimation that He
use His more than human power, and by such means supply the need. It was
not her function to direct or even to suggest the exercize of the power
inherent in Him as the Son of God; such had not been inherited from her.
"What have I to do with thee?" He asked; and added: "Mine hour is not
yet come." Here we find no disclaimer of the ability to do what she
apparently wanted Him to do, but the plain implication that He would act
only when the time was right for the purpose, and that He, not she, must
decide when that time had come. She understood His meaning, in part at
least, and contented herself by instructing the servants to do
whatsoever He directed. Here again is evidence of her position of
responsibility and domestic authority at the social gathering.

The time for His intervention soon arrived. There stood within the place
six water pots;[335] these He directed the servants to fill with water.
Then, without audible command or formula of invocation, as best we know,
He caused to be effected a transmutation within the pots, and when the
servants drew therefrom, it was wine, not water that issued. At a Jewish
social gathering, such as was this wedding festival, some one, usually a
relative of the host or hostess, or some other one worthy of the honor,