Drinking

[Miles_Militis]

This is interesting since the local Catholic church where I used to live had a “beer garden” at their carnival every year and they didn’t seem to have any problem with people getting drunk.

I wonder if they would have considered it a sin if they weren’t making money off it.

There is nothing wrong with alcohol. As has been said it is the abuse that the Church is against. There are many religious orders that have been known to brew their own beer. Christ Himself transformed water into wine.

A hammer is a good thing, and can be used to shelter the homeless, but its abuse could lead to a murder weapon. Yet the Church does not condem the use of hammers. The abuse of anything is against Church teaching.

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O.P.

As for drinking, as St. Thomas Aquinas said we can drink to “the point of hilarity”. Which seems to me, to be at least a little tipsy. We also can consider the state of affairs at the wedding of Cana.

After Jesus turned the water to wine the master of the feast said to the bridegroom: “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Insinuating that the people had already ‘drunk freely’, yet even at this point when everyone would have ahd their share of wine, Jesus gave them even more (about **150 gallons **so the scripture says). 1

The way I see it. Drunkeness, and the sin of it, comes when one has consumed enough alcohol to adversely affect their decision making. For some this may come at ‘tipsy’, others may have to be much farther along. But so long as you remain in control (for the most part) of your facilities, you are not in sin.

1 “there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.” - John 2:6

 

[sodak]

Some good and thoughtful answers here. I think if you go past the warm feeling/buzz, then you are definitely past where you should be. If you stay within the current legal limits, you are easily on the sober side.

A long time ago, when the authorities were trying to write the very first DUI laws, they asked the AMA for advice. The medical answer? 0.15 BAC.

 

[JonathanEdwards]

There is nothing wrong with alcohol. As has been said it is the abuse that the Church is against. There are many religious orders that have been known to brew their own beer. Christ Himself transformed water into wine.

A hammer is a good thing, and can be used to shelter the homeless, but its abuse could lead to a murder weapon. Yet the Church does not condem the use of hammers. The abuse of anything is against Church teaching.

The difference, of course, is that we don’t tell people that drunkenness is a “mortal” sin and then set up drinking areas for people to get drunk.