What Do We Do With All This Wine?

So you’ve invited family and a few friends to a wedding, maybe 200 people, and you start to run out of wine.  One of the guests, Mary, is reputed to have a wunderkind, a son who they say can work miracles.  You ask her if he can help get you out of this embarrassing situation, and after trying to keep out of it, he has the wait staff fill six water jars and he turns the water into wine.

Cool story, eh?  But as Benedict XVI says in Jesus of Nazareth, the details of the story suggest that you now have about 500 bottles of wine and your event is almost over.  The question Benedict asks is, “Why would Jesus turn so much water into so much wine?  He suggests that it is a sign of the character of God, a source of plenty.  It would be repeated in the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. 

The title of this blog arose from my circumstance a year ago.  After a very healthy and active life, I had been diagnosed with an aortic aneurism, a bulge in the main vessel carrying blood from the heart.  Such aneurisms could be fatal, so I was restricted from activity

while I underwent testing to determine details and consider actions.  I began writing the blog in case I would, indeed, die soon, so those who knew and loved me would know that I would have died happy and grateful and fulfilled.  I thought what I was dispensing was lemonade.  After writing daily for almost a year, I began to run out of lemons.  My diagnosis had become much less frightening.  And at the same time, a hidden fear had diminished.  Newly retired, I was afraid we would run out of money before we died.  Even as the truth of my medical situation became less critical, so did the truth of our finances.

My shortage of lemons has turned into an overabundance of wine.  And this takes me right back to the issue of the Eucharist that I shared a few posts ago.  If we are in a situation of plenty, of having more wine or bread or fish than we need, if we have been given a precious gift and we accept it, how do we respond?

My friend Jim Serrick has more than his share of humility.    (He also has a great sense of humor, and would probably respond to this praise by saying, “Yeah and I’m darned proud of it.”  One when I tried to put into words what good I saw in him, he responded to my note by saying that notes of praise say more about the writer than the subject.  The gift speaks of the giver.  And so when we accept the gift, we take on an aspect of the giver. 

As soon as Benedict had asked the question – what do we do with all that wine – I found myself in full attention.  I have come to realize that life has given Kathy more wine than lemons.  And his response was clear and simple. 

Love. 

Tomorrow – love that nourishes, love that consumes.