There’s a painting I like at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena called “Marriage at Cana.” It reminds me of the Where’s Waldo? books my nephew loved as a boy. Each page revealed interesting people crowded together in one place. The task was to locate a character named Waldo hidden somewhere in all the activity.
What’s remarkable about this 17th century painting is that Jesus himself is hard to find at first. The canvas is action-packed, but you know he must be there somewhere among all these guests having such a good time. Then you spot him, just off to the side. How differently he could have made his presence to the world known! But embedded in this ordinary human event, his first miracle is a humble act of attentive kindness.
What simple thing could I do today that might show someone I’m paying attention with the love Christ showed at Cana?
—Joe Kraemer, S.J., a Jesuit scholastic of the California province, is studying philosophy at Fordham University.