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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"How then," asks some one, "came it into the mind of His mother to imagine anything great of Him?" He was now beginning to reveal Himself, and was plainly discovered by the witness of John, and by what He had said to His disciples. And before all this, the Conception itself and all its attending circumstances had inspired her with a very great opinion of the Child; "for," said Luke, "she heard all the sayings concerning the Child, and kept them in her heart." "Why then," says one, "did not she speak this before?" Because, as I said, …
Cyril of Alexandria
Seasonably comes He at length, to the beginning of miracles, even if He seems to have been called to it without set purpose. For a marriage feast being held (it is clear that it was altogether holily), the mother of the Saviour is present, and Himself also being bidden comes together with His own disciples, to work miracles rather than to feast with them, and yet more to sanctify the very beginning of the birth of man: I mean so far as appertains to the flesh. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
The Mother urges Him to perform a miracle, because from the events of the conception and birth She had received a lofty understanding of His power. For She kept all these things in Her heart (Luke 2:19, 51) and from this concluded that Her Son possesses power above that of man. But the Mother of God did not have reason to ask Jesus to perform a miracle on the grounds that He had performed other miracles. For, being a child, He did not perform a single miracle; otherwise He would have been known to all. …
Western Saints
Bede
The wine was made to fail, to give our Lord the opportunity of making better; that so the glory of God in man might be brought out of its hiding place: And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine.
Thomas Aquinas
At this physical marriage some role in the miracle belongs to the mother of Christ, some to Christ, and some to the disciples. When he says, When the wine ran out, he indicates the part of each. The role of Christ's mother was to superintend the miracle; the role of Christ to perform it; and the disciples were to bear witness to it. As to the first, Christ's mother assumed the role of a mediatrix. Hence she does two things. First, she intercedes with her Son. In the second place, she instructs the servants. …
Bonaventure
And the wine failing. Here is touched upon the second point, namely the obtaining of the miracle, which was done by the Mother having compassion on the bridegroom's want. Therefore he says: And the wine failing, the Mother of Jesus says to him: They have no wine; as if to say: From your abundance supply their want; for she knew that he was "rich in mercy" and power, although he appeared poor: 2 Corinthians 8: "Though he was rich in all things, he became poor for our sake."
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