I love weddings. I hope that admission doesn’t revoke my “man card”. It’s not the romance or the beautiful bride stirring my heart— it’s the party, the sheer, unrestrained joy and celebration of the union of man and wife. Friends and family come together in a festive atmosphere to celebrate, to enjoy one another, and to have a party. Next to the birth of a child, there are very few things in life that produce more joy than a wedding.

In the Gospel of John, we read that Christ attended a wedding in Cana of Galilee along with His disciples, and that His Mother was there too. When the wine gave out, she asked Him to do a public miracle, openly manifesting to all that He was the Messiah. He refused, calling her rather formally “Madam” rather than the usual “Mother” (the Greek reads, gynē, “woman”, but this has a different and more disrespectful feel in English than it does in the Greek), and asking what this problem had to do with them. “My hour,” He explained, “has not yet come.”

Our faith, the revelation of God to man, the way into the very life of the Trinity, is woven into a rich tapestry that beckons all mankind to partake of this masterpiece. Among the threads of this cloth are the Scriptures, the Liturgy, and the lives of holy men and women who worked out their salvation among us and for all of us. Many Christians today have tried dissecting these threads, distorting the image and the path toward God. The connection is an organic whole and to separate the parts is to endanger the path. For there is no word or symbol or action within Orthodoxy that is wasted and without meaning.