Lent has progressed just long enough for most of us to have broken at least one of our penitential resolutions. Perhaps we have indulged in a formerly renounced glass of wine. Paradoxically, in the very act of breaking such a resolution, we are once again confronted with the deeper meaning of Lent: death leads to rebirth, and the journey into spiritual wilderness is our path to new life. Moreover, for Christians, wine represents much more than a vain and worldly pleasure.
Our ancient, pagan ancestors sought their own means of wrestling with the fundamental questions of life and death, yet despite their great learning they lacked the full self-revelation of God. Instead, they turned to their own contemporary gods for answers. What they found was, amongst other notions, Silenus’s Wisdom, named after the Greek god Silenus, tutor to Dionysius, the god of wine. Silenus’s great insight was that the best thing is never to have been born, and the second best is to die young. The answer of the ancients, therefore, was to enjoy life to its fullest while one could. Hence, Silenus would shift between states of drunkenness and sleep. This is a rather bleak view of life. Thankfully, the blessing of revelation has given Christians an entirely different outlook on earthly existence, and on wine.
In the wisdom of Christ, we find wine elevated by miracles and the Most Holy Sacrament. His very first miracle consisted of His turning water into wine. Wine is transubstantiated into His blood at Mass. Wine, in the Christian worldview, shares the Greek vision of its life-giving qualities, but wine is no longer mere wine. In the Mass it is the blood of Christ Himself and an eternally life-giving source.
This could not be further from the modern treatment of wine as a mere, if exquisite, escape from the quotidian. It is in this vein that many will be forgoing their usual evening drink over Lent in an effort to refocus their minds on what really matters in this life and the next. When there are festivities during this period, they are rightly focused on Christ. By the time that Lent reaches its crescendo in Holy Week, we are following His life day by day. In countries like Spain, His Passion is not only commemorated but reenacted and lived through the processions of various confraternities. Carrying floats depicting biblical tableaux and wearing conical hoods, they process down the roads of Spanish cities, large and small. The Nazarenos, as these hooded brethren are called, are an often frightening sight, but the penitential path that they pave is a last reminder of the rigours that we need to undertake alongside Christ in order to join Him in His resurrection.
Relinquishing indulgences like fine wine can certainly help to recall us to this Christian vocation. But wine can also be a beautiful means of centering our attention on the good and what some philosophers call “the aesthetic gaze”. Through this gaze, we look upon the world in aesthetic terms, such as “beautiful” and “sublime”.
Such terms certainly came to my mind as I tasted a Spanish wine earlier this week. Produced by a traditional method in one of the country’s oldest wine regions, Cariñena, Vida Essentia Garnacha by Ignacio Marin exudes the youthfulness and vitality so celebrated by the ancients. Although its more intense fruity notes were a little potent for my palate, I could not help but appreciate the more profound meaning imbued in such an established wine, from the soil in which it has been produced, and the hands of the family who have tilled that ground for so long.
I drank Vida Essentia paired with beef brisket and am told that it goes well with a bit of heat too. My menu may not sound particularly Lenten, but readers will be comforted to know that I have not forgone spiritual rigour this Lent. Such internal discipline and sacrifice are vital if we are to walk at the foot of the Cross. Still we can learn much from cultures like Spain, which have given us both the Nazarenos and wines that help us to remember and partake in the goodness with which God has blessed us in this life. After all, Christ’s transformation of water into wine came in a festive setting – a wedding – and should remind us that wine is an essential part of our Christian culture – all in moderation, of course.
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