And herein we find another point in which this miracle of Jesus
resembles the working of his Father. For God ministers to us so gently,
so stolenly, as it were, with such a quiet, tender, loving absence of
display, that men often drink of his wine, as these wedding guests
drank, without knowing whence it comes--without thinking that the giver
is beside them, yea, in their very hearts. For God will not compel the
adoration of men: it would be but a pagan worship that would bring to
his altars. He will rouse in men a sense of need, which shall grow at
length into a longing; he will make them feel after him, until by their
search becoming able to behold him, he may at length reveal to them the
glory of their Father. He works silently--keeps quiet behind his works,
as it were, that he may truly reveal himself in the right time. With
this intent also, when men find his wine good and yet do not rise and
search for the giver, he will plague them with sore plagues, that the
good wine of life may not be to them, and therefore to him and the
universe, an evil thing. It would seem that the correlative of creation
is search; that as God has _made us_, we must _find_ him; that thus our
action must reflect his; that thus he glorifies us with a share in the
end of all things, which is that the Father and his children may be one
in thought, judgment, feeling, and intent, in a word, that they may
mean the same thing. St John says that Jesus thus "manifested forth
his glory, and his disciples believed on him." I doubt if any but his
disciples knew of the miracle; or of those others who might see or hear
of it, if any believed on him because of it. It is possible to see a
miracle, and not believe in it; while many of those who saw a miracle of
our Lord believed in the miracle, and yet did not believe in him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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