Excerpt from Fifth Gospel: Water and Wine

‘What do you see?’ His eyes held hers.

To look at him near blinded her and so she looked away. ‘I don’t know what to tell you…I see a dazzling glory!’ she looked again, ‘Praise be God! I see…’

‘What?’

‘I see the Son of God!’ Immediately she put a hand to her mouth as if she had blasphemed.

‘Don’t be afraid, you have committed no wrong…’ he said, ‘trust in your heart.’

Tears came into her eyes. ‘I feel joy!’ She lost her balance and he steadied her and held her face close to his.

‘This is heaven expressing itself through you, for this is the first time my mother in heaven sees the Son who long ago departed from her…she sees Him who is in me through your eyes!’

Again she felt she would faint, and to forestall it he held her with one hand and took the cup of water and brought it to her lips. ‘Drink this,’ he said, ‘it will sustain you.’

When she took a sip she was full of confusion. She looked into the cup trying to decide whether she believed it.

She said, ‘How does this taste of wine Jesus?’  

Jesus nodded. ‘It is only water…but what lives between you and me can make even water taste of wine.’

She had heard these words before, they echoed the words of the Anchorite in Egypt, spoken so many years ago.

‘This is a mother’s love for her son,’ she marvelled.

‘And a son's love for his mother,’ he replied.

Before she could say more the storm of light that had surrounded Jesus ebbed away. So swiftly did it go that she wondered if she’d seen it at all.

Returned to those eyes was the calm expression she knew. 
‘You look tired…’ he said to her, ‘Tomorrow is another busy day.’

She hesitated, ‘I have been saying fare-thee-well to you all your life Jesus, and now I find myself not wanting to leave you, lest you disappear into thin air!’

Jesus let his face open in a smile, ‘I know. But this is a new season, and we must not say fare-thee-well, we must say, Shalom! Shalom, mother…shalom!’

He hugged her and she hugged him back. Embarrassed, happy, she closed her eyes, settling the word into her heart.

When the moment was over she took the pitcher and cup and walked out of the workshop, feeling the swelling of a love so great, that she could neither contain it, nor properly express it.