Jesus said unto her,
Woman, what have I to do with you? my hour has not yet come.
All Commentaries on John 2:4 Go To John 2
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And Jesus saith, What is it to Me and to Thee, &c. Meaning, What have I to do with thee in this matter? (Quid mihi tecum in hac re est negotii?) Observe, the Blessed Virgin did not out of ostentation, or in an untimely, unbecoming, or indiscreet fashion ask this miracle of her Song of Solomon , as S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius think: but out of necessity charity and piety, as SS. Cyril, Bernard, and others say. Therefore there was no blame attaching to her. Therefore Christ did not really blame her. And yet He seems to reprove her, that He might teach, not her, but us, that in things pertaining to God, and miracles, parents have no right or authority. They must not be done in accordance with their affections and desires, but only for God and charity"s sake. The meaning, therefore, is this, "Thou, 0 Mother, in this matter, art not My Mother, but as it were another woman. For, from thee I have received human nature, not Divinity. It belongs to My Divine nature to work this miracle, not in accordance with thy desires, and those of relations, but in accordance with the will of God My Father. According to that will I shall work, when the hour and time decreed by God shall come." Hear S. Augustine on this passage: "The word woman is used simply to express the female sex." " Hebrews , as God," says Euthymius, "said not "Mother," but "woman."" "He means," says S. Bede, "that He had not received in time from His Mother the Divinity by which He was about to perform a miracle, but that He had It eternally from the Father." "He means to say," says the Interlinear Gloss, "What is there in common between My Divinity and thee My Mother according to the flesh?" "Thou didst not beget, or produce (genuisti) My Divinity, which works the miracle," says S. Augustine. S. Chrysostom adds, "He speaks thus, lest the miracle should seem to be the result of collusion. He should have been asked by those who needed the wine, not by His Mother."
Mine hour, &c, i.e, when I may appropriately work this miracle. I wish to wait a little while until the wine has wholly failed, that all the guests may perceive the miracle more clearly, and that all may know that I have wrought it, and so may believe in Me. For he who does not experience the need, will not greatly feel the necessity. So S. Chrysostom. The same S. Chrysostom gives another explanation: "Mine hour is not yet come, because I proposed to work My first miracle in Jerusalem, the capital of Judea: nevertheless at thy prayers, 0 My Mother, I will change My purpose, and will do it here in Cana of Galilee."
S. Augustine gives another explanation, to the following effect: The hour of My passion is not yet come, in which I will show what I have to do with thee My Mother, that indeed I have of thee truly assumed man"s nature, and that I am thy Son. When in the weakness of My human nature, of which thou art the Mother, I shall hang upon the cross, then I will acknowledge thee. For He commended her then to His disciple.
