In this way the journey resumes, and we reach the little town of Cana without any hindrance. There we quickly go to the house where I performed the first public miracle. Less than an hour passes before almost the whole place knows that I and all who traveled with Me have arrived safely and in good health. Everyone hurries over to see, greet and welcome those who have arrived. When they see Me, they cannot find enough words of praise and admiration for My having cleansed the temple in Jerusalem so decisively. For many from Cana had also come to the feast and had seen what I had done in Jerusalem; they had also learned how I had made many sick people well there, and praised Me exceedingly.
I asked them whether there were no sick people here. They said that, remarkably, at this time not a single person in the whole place was sick.
But I said that they were indeed healthy in body, yet not in soul: ‘For whoever practices sexual immorality and fornication is very sick in his soul! Through this sin a person’s heart grows harder, more unfeeling and more merciless toward his fellow human beings from day to day. In the end it sees nothing but itself and the object with which it can indulge its lust—not for the sake of the object itself, but for the sake of lusting. Such a heart then flees God’s word, which warns the person against his evil desire, and finally even becomes an enemy of those who keep God’s word in their hearts and live by it. Many of you suffer from this sickness, and that is why I have come to you again, to heal you of this very evil and deadly sickness. Whoever among you knows himself to be afflicted with this worst of sicknesses, let him entrust himself to Me, and I will heal him.’
As I announce this, a great many immediately leave the house. For the guilty are seized by a fear that I will expose them publicly, and so they make off. Among them were also some adulterers and people who committed incest, and many of both sexes who defiled themselves; in the end they were glad to be far from My eyes.
For many, however, it was not so much that they did not want to be healed of such a passion; it was much more simply a matter of shame. For they otherwise passed for honorable, respected people, and it would have been very unpleasant for them if their neighbors had thus learned that their flesh was weak. But they did not consider that they were exposing themselves by making themselves scarce at My well-intentioned request.
Many of those who remained said, ‘No, I would never have believed that of this person or that one!’ Others could not keep from laughing and said, ‘How cleverly You went about it! Someone could have questioned these people for ten years, and they would certainly have given him no answer on this subject. But You merely invited them, with loving kindness, to let You heal them in this respect—and see, they all took to their heels! They surely thought that You, who had been able to turn water into wine, might also be able to call them by name and say, “You have sinned in this way, and so many times!” Naturally they could not have borne that, and so they took to their heels. But at that moment they did not consider that by running away like this they were exposing themselves most of all. We do not wish to judge them for it, for we are not unaware of our own weaknesses, and we also know that it is always wisest to sweep and clean before one’s own front door. Yet the affair remains laughable, since these people thought that by making themselves scarce they might not be recognized as the kind of sinners You had just described. No, are they perhaps even more foolish than a rhinoceros from Persia?’
I say, ‘Let them go, these blind fools! They are ashamed before people, but not before God, who always sees through and examines people’s hearts and kidneys. I tell you all: this worldly sense of shame is vain! How long will it last in this world? Soon the body whose flesh had given them so many sweet hours will be taken from them. Then they will arrive naked in the other world, where everything they have done in this world, however secretly, will be proclaimed to them from the rooftops down to the smallest detail. Only then will real and lasting shame be their portion, and they will not rid themselves of it there as easily as here.
Truly I tell you all: the lustful, the sexually immoral and fornicators will not enter the kingdom of God, unless they turn with all their might from their most wicked way of life. For see, a person commits all other sins outside the body and can therefore also put them aside more easily. What happens outwardly does not corrupt a person as much as what happens within him. But fornication takes place within a person, corrupts the soul and the spirit, and is therefore the pestilence, for the titillation of lust is Satan’s artifice. Woe to whoever has let himself be seized by Satan in this way! Each will in the end have great difficulty freeing himself from Satan’s claws. Unspeakable suffering and pain will be his portion. Heed all this well, or a time and days will come that will not please you at all. But now let us go to rest!’
Several who had traveled with Me went to their own homes. But My disciples, Mother Mary and My brothers—that is, Joseph’s five sons—remained with Me.