Marysgirl: Do yourself a favor and never, EVER go to a Purim celebration. I went to two last night, one was practically secular, and the other was attended strictly by Orthodox and Conservative Jews and their friends. The secular one had some spiked punch and some wine, and was fairly sedate with only a few people cursing Haman and cheering Mordachai.
The more religiously conservative one was…I’ve never seen that much drinking and shouting without someone getting taken away in an ambulance
. The Rabbi doing the reading, who I believe was Modern Orthodox, was not only incredible in his reading, but almost managed to knock over the podium with his foot stamping and fist-pounding when Haman came up. After the reading we were all but required to have a few drinks, and we were dancing wildly to guitar renditions of traditional Hebrew songs. It was a wonderful celebration of life and survival, espescially fitting due to its proximity to Easter this year although it would have been
perfect if it fell just afterwards and not durning Lent.
The point is that, at the second party espescially, we were all very faithful people celebrating life, survival, and the fact that God protects His people and ALWAYS provides. Sure, we could have celebrated these things without the alcohol, and we should everyday in someway or another, but in this case the drinks loosened us up and honestly pushed us to a level of revelry that would have been hard to reach otherwise. It helped us to forget our worries for awhile and truly praise and celebrate God. It’s not something to be done every week, obviously, but I do believe that there are times when such behavior is actually pious.
Now as for social functions with your church, you have to remember that alcohol is not prohibited by the Church (God forbid), and there’s no solid reason for barring adults from consuming it out of hand. Obviously if it leads to a lot of improper behavior, then the issue needs to be evaluated and steps taken to protect people. If the alcohol isn’t causing people to harm you, however, I see no reason beyond personal disgust with it for wanting it banned. It’s not like smoking in which it spills over into your body simply by virtue of proximity.
We’re not
required to drink it (again, don’t go to a Purim celebration!), but it is not considered inherently unhealthy by the Church. Your personal preference is just that, and it isn’t fair to foist it on others when they aren’t foisting their behavior on you, espescially since their behavior is perfectly licit.
On a side note, I think most Catholics really should attend a Purim celebration sometime. It’s simply a telling and celebration of the Book of Ester, which is part of our Scripture anyway, and it’s a great way to celebrate God’s honoring of the Covenants. The method of celebrating this holiday seems to have grown to its current practice after the time of the Jewish-Christian split, but it really is a good time and not contrary to our beliefs in any way. We have Mardi Gras, but that always has more of a “Saturday we party, Sunday we pray,” feel to it that I don’t like. At the very least I think we could “take a page from the Megillah” and mix some real piety into Mardi Gras parties. Maybe that would help curb some of the more sinful patterns people fall into on that day.
SSV: How was your Purim, buddy? :tiphat:
God Bless
