I dance, I drink beer, and that is why I’m Catholic. Just kidding.
Seriously, I’m always amazed that these people are so close to God that they can make something a sin that Jesus Christ did. I guess maybe their Jesus wasn’t sinless.
Think about this too. The line on what is moderation is probably farther down the line than many think today. At the wedding of Cana, Jesus made wine after the people had had enough such that they could no longer tell that it was no longer the “good stuff.” Now for a person who doesn’t drink much wine, that might not be too far down. But in Israel at that time, wine was served w/ with every nightly meal as it is in Italy today. I’ve been in Rome and the Italians can still tell if they are drinking the 'good stuff" after five or six glasses.
If it had been sinful to drink the wine at that stage of the wedding feast, do you think Mary would have asked him to make it and Jesus would have agreed?
I remember a lesson from my associate while in High school (CCD was taught to the Jrs. by the associate and to Srs. by the Pastor). As you might imagine, drinking came up in this type of intimate setting as we were in the rectory basement and as we were postconfirmation. The discussions were as much about life issues as they were about theology.
Anyway, he said to us there is no sin in drinking alcohol but in what we do when we have been drinking. And drinking alcohol isn’t an excuse if you do something wrong becuase you drank too much. In other words, never drink so much such that you open yourself up to sin via your lower inhibitions. In this situation, drinking even a few beers while in a bar without your wife and you might be tempted to dance w/ young girls can be a real bad thing. Drinking a more beers while playing Pinochle at your kitchen table w/ your brother, his wife and your wife is significantly less a problem.
Granted there is a point where the drinking gets to a level (quantity and frequency) wehre you do harm to your body and that should be avoided. But on occassion, just like gourging yourself at Thanksgiving, getting drunk might be sinful but its gravity isn’t such that you need to confess it as much as address it in your prayers and/or the Penitential Rite at Mass.
And in the face of the grave matter sins out there, I find it goofy that this is the type of sin our Baptist friends tie themselves up in knotts over. Seriously, they’ll kick people out of their congregation or consider them subject to damnation over drinking beer but they don’t see anything wrong in not welcoming people to their congregation becuase they are of a different color skin (granted they are more subtle in their unwelcomeness now but unwelcoming just the same).
