The Lost Art of Catholic Drinking

Inside Catholic ^ | November 26, 2009 | Sean P. Dailey

[NYer]

There is Protestant drinking and there is Catholic drinking, and the difference is more than mere quantity. I have no scientific data to back up my claims, nor have I completed any formal studies. But I have done a good bit of, shall we say, informal study, which for a hypothesis like this is probably the best kind.

To begin with, what is Catholic drinking? It's hard to pin down, but here's a historical example. St. Arnold (580-640), also known as St. Arnulf of Metz, was a seventh-century bishop of Metz, in what later became France. Much beloved by the people, St. Arnold is said to have preached against drinking water, which in those days could be extremely dangerous owing to unsanitary sewage systems -- or no sewage system at all. At the same time, he frequently touted the benefits of beer and is credited with having once said, "From man's sweat and God's love, beer came into the world."

 

Wise words, and St. Arnold's flock took them to heart. After his death, the good bishop was buried at a monastery near Remiremont, France, where he had retired. However, his flock missed him and wanted him back, so in 641, having gotten approval to exhume St. Arnold's remains, they carried him in procession back to Metz for reburial in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles. Along the way, it being a hot day, they got thirsty and stopped at an inn for some beer. Unfortunately, the inn had just enough left for a single mug; the processionals would have to share. As the tale goes, the mug did not run dry until all the people had drunk their fill.

 

Now, I'm not saying that Catholic drinking involves miracles, or that a miracle should occur every time people get together to imbibe. But good beer -- and good wine for that matter -- is a small miracle in itself, being a gift from God to His creatures, whom He loves. And as G. K. Chesterton wrote in Orthodoxy, "We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them." In other words, we show our gratitude to God for wine and beer by enjoying these things, in good cheer and warm company, but not enjoying them to excess.

 

Just what constitutes excess is for each person to judge for himself. However, we now approach the main difference between Catholic drinking and Protestant drinking. Protestant drinking tends to occur at one extreme or another: either way too much or none at all, with each being a reaction to the other. Some people, rightly fed up with the smug self-righteousness of teetotalers, drink to excess. And teetotalers, rightly appalled at the habits of habitual drunkards, practice strict abstinence. It seems to occur to neither side that their reaction is just that: a reaction, and not a solution. If they considered it a bit, they might see a third way that involves neither drunkenness nor abstinence, yet is consistent with healthy, honest, humane Christian living.

 

Here we encounter Catholic drinking. Catholic drinking is that third way, the way to engage in an ancient activity enjoyed by everyone from peasants to emperors to Jesus Himself. And again, it is not just about quantity. In fact, I think the chief element is conviviality. When friends get together for a drink, it may be to celebrate, or it may be to mourn. But it should always be to enjoy one another's company. (Yes, there is a time and place for a solitary beer, but that is the exception.)

 

For example: The lectures at the annual Chesterton conference are themselves no more important than the attendees later discussing those same lectures over beer and wine (we tend to adhere to Hilaire Belloc's rule of thumb, which is to avoid alcoholic beverages developed after the Reformation). These gatherings occur between talks, during talks -- indeed, long into the night -- and we typically fall into bed pleasantly stewed. I cannot imagine a Chesterton conference without this. And yet I also know how detrimental it would be if we all stumbled back to our rooms roaring drunk.

 

Avoid each extreme -- that's how you drink like a Catholic. This is the art of Catholic drinking. There are plenty of our brethren who consider drinking somehow immoral, and there are plenty of others who think drinking must end with great intoxication. But the balanced approach -- the Catholic approach -- means having a good time, a good laugh, sometime a good cry, but always with joy and gratitude for God's generosity in giving us such wonders as beer and burgundy. Remember that, and the lost art of Catholic drinking may not remain lost.

[Melian]

I’m so happy for your wife— and you! Converts often remind us of the deep beauty of our faith.

[Miss Marple]

That supports my rule #1 about the left: They are determined to suck every bit of joy out of life.

In support of my theory, I ask you which group wants to remove Christmas trees from the public square, hates spending money on sports at school, spends every Father’s Day extolling single moms, works at destroying the Boy Scouts, pushes arugula rather than steak, and wants all of us to drive little roller skates and wear clothes made of hemp?

It’s always the same crowd, and it’s not conservatives.

[livius]

That supports my rule #1 about the left: They are determined to suck every bit of joy out of life.

You're right, that is something very true of them. There is a strong Puritanical streak in the "progressive" movement. I think it's one of the reasons the left gets along so well with Islam, which has no art, no music, and frowns on the most innocent everyday pleasures. Both the left and Islam want to control every aspect of people's lives, and they know it's hard to control fun, so they don't like it one little bit.

[Desdemona]

Yes, but it’s beechwood aged holy water!

Fair warning - that "holy" water comes straight out of the Mississippi. The brewery is about seven blocks from the river and they have their own purification plant which works just as efficiently as the city's up at the Chain of Rocks. I'm just saying. No one's died of cholera or legionnaire's disease in at least a century. ;)

[Desdemona]

That supports my rule #1 about the left: They are determined to suck every bit of joy out of life.

Isn't that the truth. Frankly, I don't want to be as unhappy as they are.

[SuziQ]

Or as Benjamin Franklin is rumored to have said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

[magisterium]

Well, I'm of German-Irish background, and had a very similar upbringing. I had a little shotglass of wine with every Sunday or holiday dinner from the time I was 4 or 5. Later, when, as a teenager, I saw a lot of my friends in a lower-middle-class section of Boston spent a lot of time trying to impress each other with their "maturity" via excursions into becoming legless, I had absolutely no interest in joining them. The "forbidden fruit" angle wasn't present for me, and the whole idea of drinking had long since been steered away from just getting hammered. I don't know if that was a deliberate part of the design in what my folks did with me, but the effect is there, just the same. Even now, I only have beer or wine at parties or other social events, and can nurse two along for as long as required. An occasional Bailey's or Sambuca at home before going to bed, and that pretty much rounds out my drinking experience. Tailored to what suits me.

Going to a Thanksgiving Leftovers "party" tonight. I'll hoist one there in memory of my mam and dad. Hoch soll er leben! Prosit!

[redgolum]

Back home in Nebraska, the Friday fish fry beer drinking fests at a local Catholic church were legendary.

I had a friend actually get kicked out of one once. Surprisingly, it wasn't because we were arguing (well, drinking) theology with the local priest. My friend managed to dump two full pitchers of beer walking back to the table.

Good times.

[CTrent1564]

MeneMeneTekeUpharsin:

I guess there was some miscommunication between Proverbs and Psalms for we read “you bring bread from the earth, and wine to gladden our hearts, Oil to make our faces gleam, food to build our strength” (Ps 104:15).

Your scriptural citations and how you use them are examples of a fundamentally different hermaneutic and method of interpreting the Sacred Scriptures.

In the Catholic Doctrine, the Catechism of the CatholicC Church (CCC) discusses the principle Typology in section 128. Typology is the Catholic view of reading Sacred Scripture as a unified whole, with the person of Christ as the center. Thus, Catholic theology sees OT persons, events, signs, as prefigurements or “types” of persons and events that occur in the NT all understood in reference to Christ. So, King David prefigures Christ the King of the new Israel. So I would like to look at Eucharist using the Catholic Biblical principle of Typology.

With respect to Wine, in Genesis 14:18, we read “Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and being a priest of God Most High, he blessed Abram.” Later in Genesis, we read where Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Isaac and he tells his son, that God will provide the Lamb. Of course, God command Abraham to not sacrifice Isaac, and Abraham later sacrifices a Ram (c.f. Gen 22:7-14). So, two themes are already developed here, Melchizedek a priest offering Bread and Wine and the image of the Lamb.

As we move to Exodus, we see the Passover ritual described in Exodus 12: 1-20. Some key themes emerge in this text, “the blood of the Lamb is spread on the doors” (c.f. Ex. 12: 7) and the Jewish People “should partake of the Lamb and eat unleavened bread” (c.f. Ex 12: 7-8). Later in the text, we read “This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generation shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution” (c.f. Exodus 12”14) and again, “keep the custom of unleavened bread…celebrate as a perpetual institution” (c.f. Ex 12:17). So some themes emerge hear, that connect back to the passages in Genesis. The blood of the Lamb is put on the door, and the angel of death passes over God’s people. To celebrate and actually participate in this saving action of God, God prescribes a Liturgy/Rite whereby the Jewish People are to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread as a “Perpetual Institution”, i.e. a celebration that transcends time and space. For the record, the reading from Exodus 12 is read every Holy Thursday in Catholic Churches ,which is when Christ celebrates the Last supper with the Apostles.

As the Jews cross the read sea in Exodus 14 [a prefigurement of Baptism], we see them on the journey to the promise land and they are without food, so what do we read in scripture. We see in Exodus 16:13-15, God providing his people with “manna”, i.e., “bread from heaven” as Moses states “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat” (c.f. Ex 16: 15). So again, the sign of God giving his people bread to sustain them on the journey to the promise land is coming into play here again. As we get to Exodus 24: 6-8, we see the covenant ratified in blood as we see Moses taking blood and sprinkling it on the altar [a sign of the presence of God among the people] and then taking the same blood and sprinkling it on the people. So, from this text we have a covenant being made in blood and the mingling of the blood on the altar and people now indicates that God and the people are one, i.e. in communion. Again, for the record, this OT passage is read in Catholic Liturgy on the Feast of Corpus Christi, which was celebrated a few Sunday’s ago.

Two Psalms have strong Eucharistic imagery, as well as sacramental imagery. For example, in Psalm 104:14-15, which I have already cited, we read “You raise grass for cattle and plants for our beasts of burden. You bring bread from the earth and wine to gladden our hearts, Oil to make our faces gleam, food to build our strength.” In Psalm 110:4 we see the connection to Melchizedek [who offered Wine as a sacrafice] again as we read “The Lord has sworn and will not waver: like Melchizedek, you are a priest forever.”

So wine becomes the tangible sign and one that God uses so we can relate to God in ways consistent with our human nature, which Christ assumed through the Incarnation, hence Sacraments are related to Christ Incarnation itself and Christ through the sacraments continues to relate to us and give us Grace through physical means which follows from Incarnational theology.

Regards

[JimRed]

Actually its “What happens when four Irishmen get together?” answer: “A fifth shows up’’.

Most people under 40 will not be likely to get that one. The "fifth" size whiskey bottle (4/5 of a quart) was replaced by the 750 ML size, and the quart by the liter, many years ago.

[NeoCaveman]

Most people under 40 will not be likely to get that one. The "fifth" size whiskey bottle (4/5 of a quart) was replaced by the 750 ML size, and the quart by the liter, many years ago.

Thanks. I always wondered why thy called it a fifth. Under 40 freeper checking in.

[JimRed]

Under 40 freeper checking in.

Live long, and prosper! (Vulcan for "cheers"!)

[Diverdogz]

Kentucky Bourbon for Kentucky Catholics - at least that has been my observation

[af_vet_1981]

But I should point out that there is plenty of research to indicate that people who are raised in cultures in which from a young age they are exposed to moderate alcohol consumption in social and religious contexts exhibit less tendency for alcohol abuse than in others lacking such exposure.

Acknowledged and you are correct.

[Ann Archy]

LOL!! So TRUE!!

[Ann Archy]

Pick a denomination!!! Choose correctly though....we/re talking about your soul and where it’s going to be spending ETERNITY!!

[topcat54]

See Drinking With Calvin and Luther!: A History of Alcohol in the Church .

[mnehring]

Jeeze, I thought the politics of denominations were man’s issue, not Gods.

[Ann Archy]

All denominations have certain tenets and creeds....non-denominational is like a nothing burger.....no meat....no guard rails.

[jenk]

ping