Wine and Beer

The Blessing of the Wine (and Beer)

Propers: The Third Day of Christmas, St John the Evangelist, A.D. 2017 B

Homily:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rejoice and be glad! And a very merry Christmas to you, my brothers and my sisters, on this third day of Christmas!

Allow me to extend my congratulations. Unless I’ve missed my guess, most all of us have made it through our stressful holiday hazings. The dinners have been cooked and consumed; the presents unwrapped and in some cases returned; the guests have gone home and we are free now to take a deep breath by the fireside, to enjoy our gracious gifts, and to savor the afterglow of mistletoe.

The craziness is done but the Christmastide carries on.

There are parties yet to enjoy: New Year’s Eve, Twelfth Night! But now the peace of Christmas comes to the fore. The music we didn’t get to listen to, the movies we didn’t get to watch, the holiday classics we didn’t manage to read, still lay before us, that we may be of good cheer in this festal season. And it is in this spirit, that today the Church blesses God’s good gift of wine and of beer.

The Scriptures exhort us not to be drunken, not to enjoy the fruits of vine and grain to excess. But in moderation, we are assured, alcohol is intended to fortify our health and to gladden our hearts. According to legend, when miscreants poisoned the chalice of St John the Evangelist, he prayed over the wine and was divinely preserved from their ill intent. We bless wine and beer tonight in memory of this.

A Christian blessing serves several purposes. It is, first and foremost, a prayer, that God work for our good, and we for the good of our neighbor, through the thing being blessed. It is also a reminder of exactly what the thing being blessed is for; that is, what God intends for it and for us through it. Wine and beer are blessings, good gifts. They were most likely the cause of the agricultural revolution, and thus the ground of all human civilization. They are not meant to harm, but to bless, to gladden, to fortify, to be enjoyed—and when necessary, avoided—responsibly.

Finally, a blessing provides us with the intersection between faith and life. The things we bless in Church we then take out into the wide world, seeing them with fresh eyes, understanding that the mundane objects of our everyday life are in fact infused with divine purpose and providential destiny. This wine is not Eucharistic. It is not for use in the Sacrament of the Divine Liturgy. Rather, it is to be quaffed at home, amidst friends and family, or perhaps savored in solitude at the end of a long day. Eating and drinking, the basic processes of life, have a dignity, have a holiness, because God is with us in them, with us in the everyday things of hearth and home.

Let us bless them. Let us bless these humble elements. Let us bless them that we may be blessed, and be ourselves a blessing for others. Let us bless them in thanksgiving to our Lord, who provides daily all that we need, and more than we know.

Raise a glass, for the love of God and St John.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.