Is drinking alcoholic beverages such as beer or strong drink a sin?

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In reference to my question I wanted to know the Catholic Chruch teachings concerning the consumption of alcoholic beverages or drinks.
Also if there are other opinions, comments or thoughtful answers concerning this question that may not be directly associated with Catholic Church teachings feel free to post as well.

To elaborate on my question I am pondering the concpet of the consumption of an alcoholic bervereges and its relation to one’s personal lifestyle as a Christian.Hence,to clarify my question in greater depth I rephrase my question and ask, **Is it acceptable as a Christian to drink wine, beer or strong drink? **

I am aware persoanlly that to be drunk or intoxicated with wine or other alcoholic bevervages is not wise, healthy, or an benefical practice.
However,as I persoanllay reflect on the overall consumption of alcoholic beverages a few scripturual passages come to mind that can also up for grabs for further clarification such as,

Proverbs 20:1
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.

Isaiah 5:11
Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!

I
 
PasionCatechist said:
In reference to my question I wanted to know the Catholic Chruch teachings concerning the consumption of alcoholic beverages or drinks.
Also if there are other opinions, comments or thoughtful answers concerning this question that may not be directly associated with Catholic Church teachings feel free to post as well.

To elaborate on my question I am pondering the concpet of the consumption of an alcoholic bervereges and its relation to one’s personal lifestyle as a Christian.Hence,to clarify my question in greater depth I rephrase my question and ask, **Is it acceptable as a Christian to drink wine, beer or strong drink? **

I am aware persoanlly that to be drunk or intoxicated with wine or other alcoholic bevervages is not wise, healthy, or an benefical practice.
However,as I persoanllay reflect on the overall consumption of alcoholic beverages a few scripturual passages come to mind that can also up for grabs for further clarification such as,

Proverbs 20:1
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.

Isaiah 5:11
Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!

I
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It is the excess of alcohol that is sinful. Remember, Jesus drank wine. His first miracle was to turn water into wine. Jesus used wine for the Last Supper – wine was an integral part of the Passover meal and Jewish life in general.
 
Proverbs 20:1
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,
And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.

Isaiah 5:11
Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,
Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!

Both passages indicate a lack of balance in drinking. If drink leads a person to brawling, intoxication; and drinking early in the day generally indicates a drinking problem, as does and drinking “late in the evening that wine may inflame them.”

In other words, both scripures condemn drinking to excess or immoderately.

If drinking with moderation were intrinsically sinful I doubt that Mary would have asked Jesus attend to the wine shortage at the wedding feast of Cana, or that He would have complied by turning water into wine.
Nor would He have used wine as a basis for giving us the Eucharist!

So there we are…what is required is moderation in drinking, if we take our cue from Scripture.

Regards, Trishie
 
PasionCatechist said:
In reference to my question I wanted to know the Catholic Chruch teachings concerning the consumption of alcoholic beverages or drinks.

I
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Yea, drink up, but be careful. Don’t mess around with it and be enslaved in any way. It’s not a sin to have a drink, though. Just do it when you’re past the legal age, and don’t do it to alter your state of mind or anything.
 
Exactomundo.

And I’d add that if a person was had a history of alcoholism and/or substance abuse in the family and were perhaps “prone” to overuse, it could be potentially sinful.
 
I would like to thank all those who have responded to my thread question. The responses that I have viewed and evaluated have been very helpful in my assessment of the concept of the consupmtion of alcoholic beverages as a Christain.

However, If anyone knows exactly what the Catholic Church teachs with provided references concerning the consumption of alcohol it would be greatly appraciated.
 
First thanks for clarification on the scriptual passages that was included in my intial thread question. Also I appraciate all attempts to answer my to my question.The responses have been helpful.

I would have to agree. I believe the consumption of alcoholic beverages should be injested with moderation.

I am also aware of this wonderful miraculous miracle when Jesus turned water into wine. This miracle is often used to jusify the overall consumption of alcoholic bevervages particually wine.

With that said, In reference to the passages in scripture where Jesus turned water into wine I have also heard from some Protestants that the wine is not the wine that we know of today, rather it was merly grape juice that was not fermented. I was wondering about any thoughts concerning these contrasting beliefs.
 
QUOTE=mmmcounts;4653531]Yea, drink up, but be careful. Don’t mess around with it and be enslaved in any way. It’s not a sin to have a drink,
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Thank you for your response. I agree with your statement to be careful and not to become enslaved by the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Just do it when you’re past the legal age, and don’t do it to alter your state of mind or anything.
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I was wondering if you could elaborate on the concept of not drinking alcoholic bevervages just to alter your state of mind. What would be this altering of the state of mind be considered as? just wondering
 
Trishie said:
Thank you for initial response to my question and the clarification of the scriptures in my intial thread question.

I just have a follow up question concerning the concept of moderation with the comsumption of alcoholic beverages
So there we are…what is required is moderation in drinking, if we take our cue from Scripture.
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Here is what the catechism says:

2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.

Notice how alcohol is placed in the same category as food, tobacco and medicine.

None of them are prohibited but if they are abused then it can be sinful.
 
You may want to ask said protestants where the Jews of Jesus day managed to keep their “grape juice.” As far as I know, grape juice left out of the refrigerator starts getting hinky mighty quickly.

And drinking up a bunch of GOOD grape juice doesn’t exactly impair one’s ability to discern cheap grape juice afterwards. Read the servant’s exclamations about the quality of Jesus’ wine. He’s clearly talking about REAL wine, not juice.
 
PasionCatechist said:
To elaborate on my question I am pondering the concpet of the consumption of an alcoholic bervereges and its relation to one’s personal lifestyle as a Christian.Hence,to clarify my question in greater depth I rephrase my question and ask, **Is it acceptable as a Christian to drink wine, beer or strong drink? **
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Is it a sin, no.

Is it acceptable? That depends on the circumstances. If you are underage, an alcoholic, at work, driving, operating heavy machinery, etc., the answer is probably “no”. For the rest, it is probably acceptable (in prudent moderation).
 
PasionCatechist said:
I would like to thank all those who have responded to my thread question. The responses that I have viewed and evaluated have been very helpful in my assessment of the concept of the consupmtion of alcoholic beverages as a Christain.

However, If anyone knows exactly what the Catholic Church teachs with provided references concerning the consumption of alcohol it would be greatly appraciated.
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Hi PasionCatechist:wave:

I found this to be helpful when talking to young adults over the age of 21 and youngsters:D :

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE GATHERED IN THE VATICAN BASILICA
Wednesday, 22 November 1978

Beloved Children,

This weekly meeting of the Pope with the young and adolescents—so enthusiastic and so lively—is really a sign of joy and hope. A sign of joy, because where there are young people, adolescents, children, there is the guarantee of joy, since it is life in its most spontaneous and most exuberant bloom. You possess this “joie de vivre” abundantly and bestow it generously on a world that is sometimes tired, discouraged, disheartened, disappointed. This meeting of ours is also a sign of hope, because adults, not only your parents, but also your teachers, professors and all those who collaborate in your physical and intellectual growth and development, see in you those who will attain what they, perhaps—owing to various circumstances—have not been able to achieve.

Therefore a young person without joy and without hope is not a real young person, but a man who has dried up and aged prematurely. For this reason the Pope says to you: Bring, transmit, radiate joy and hope!

The subject of today’s Audience is deeply connected with what I have recalled so far. On preceding Wednesdays, continuing the plan left almost as a testament by my late Predecessor John Paul I, I spoke of the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice and fortitude. Today I wish to speak to you briefly about the fourth cardinal virtue: temperance, sobriety. St Paul wrote to his disciple Titus, whom he had left as Bishop in the island of Crete: “Urge the younger men to control themselves” (Tit 2:6). Following the call of the Apostle of the Gentiles, I would like to say first that man’s attitudes, deriving from the individual cardinal virtues, are interdependent on one another and united. It is not possible to be a really prudent man, or an authentically just one, or a truly strong one, unless one possesses the virtue of temperance. This conditions all the other virtues indirectly; but the latter too, are indispensable in order that man may be “temperate” or “sober”. “Temperantia est commune omnium virtutum cognomen”—St John Climacus wrote in the sixth century (Ladder to Paradise, 15)—that is, we could translate, “temperance is the common denominator of all other virtues” .

It might seem strange to speak of temperance or sobriety to young people and adolescents. Yet, beloved children, this cardinal virtue is particularly necessary for you, who are in the marvellous and delicate period in which your biopsychical reality grows to perfect maturity in order to be capable, physically and spiritually, of facing up to the vicissitudes of life in its most diverse requirements.

**A temperate man is one who does not abuse food, drinks, pleasures; who does not drink alcoholic beverages to excess; who does not deprive himself of consciousness by using drugs or narcotics. **We can imagine within us a “lower self” and a “higher self”. In our “lower self” our “body” is expressed with its needs, its desires, its passions of sensible nature. The virtue of temperance guarantees every man the control of the “lower self” by the “higher self”. Is it a question, in this case, of a humiliation, a disability, for our body? On the contrary! This control gives it new value, exalts it.

A temperate man is one who is master of himself; one in whom passions do not prevail over reason, over will, and even over the heart. We understand, therefore, how the virtue of temperance is indispensable in order that the person may be fully man, in order that the young person may be truly young. **The sad and degrading spectacle of an alcoholic or a drug addict makes us understand clearly that “to be a man” means, before everything else, to respect one’s own dignity, that is, to let oneself be guided by the virtue of temperance. **To control oneself, one’s passions, sensuality, does not at all mean becoming insensitive or indifferent; the temperance of which we are speaking is a Christian virtue, which we learn from the teaching and the example of Jesus, and not from so-called “Stoic” morality.

Temperance requires from each of us specific humility with regard to the gifts that God has placed in our human nature. There is “the humility of the body” and that “of the heart”. 😉 This humility is a necessary condition for man’s interior harmony, for his interior beauty. Think it over carefully, you young people, who are just at the age in which one is so eager to be handsome or beautiful in order to please others! A young man, a young woman, must be beautiful first and foremost inwardly. Without this interior beauty, all other efforts aimed only at the body will not make—either him, or her—a really beautiful person.

And my wish for you, beloved children, is that you will always be radiant with interior beauty!
vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19781122_giovani_en.html http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/j...cuments/hf_jp-ii_spe_19781122_giovani_en.html
 
It is not the use that is wrong, it is the abuse. Remember, Jesus changed water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana so the people could celebrate. Are you saying Jesus sinned?
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
Drinking it could be considered a sin if you cause some one to sin because of it. Example. If you know some one is a recovering alcoholic and you drink in front of them and they then sin and get drunk because of what you did, then it is a sin. IF you drink in front of some one who would get angry as in, “YOUR A Christian you should be drinking” and they get angered by it and cause themselves to be sinfully angry, because of what you did then that is also sinning. Just be mindful of who is around, of who is watching, because as Paul said it is a sin to become a stumbling block to your brother.
 
**1 Timothy 5:23 **

23No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

Saint Paul says it’s good for you.👍

Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, a physician and dentist by profession, successfully pasteurizes Concord grape juice to produce an “unfermented sacramental wine” for fellow parishioners at his church in Vineland, N.J., where he is communion steward. The year? 1869 a.d.
 
In response to the idea that the ‘wine’ Jesus produced at Cana or used in the Last Supper was grape juice - remember He was called a ‘winebibber and a drunkard’ by those who didn’t like Him.

That would be impossible if He never touched alcohol, now, wouldn’t it 🤷 Just as it was impossible for them to raise a charge of drunkenness against John the Baptist, so they went the other way and criticised John for his austerity in food and drink.
 
Hello, and good day Dchsknight. I would like to thank you for taking the time to respond to my thread Question.
Dchsknight said:
Drinking it could be considered a sin if you cause some one to sin because of it. Example. If you know some one is a recovering alcoholic and you drink in front of them and they then sin and get drunk because of what you did, then it is a sin.
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In reference to your statement I would have to agree that drinking in front of an alcoholic or a recovering alcoholic is not wise,appropiate,or compassionate.
IF you drink in front of some one who would get angry as in, “YOUR A Christian you should be drinking” and they get angered by it and cause themselves to be sinfully angry, because of what you did then that is also sinning.
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Hmm…well in this case I would have to slightly disagree with you here. If I begin to drink an alcoholic beverage for example and someone mentions to me that “I am a christain and that I should not be drinking.” I would kindly with love explain to them my beliefs concerning the consumption with moderation of alcoholic beverages etc. If after my explination they continue to strongly disagree with me and choose by their own free will to become angry with me I wouldn’t consider that as my fault or sin because they were unable to control their anger.
Just be mindful of who is around, of who is watching, because as Paul said it is a sin to become a stumbling block to your brother
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.

I agree I think it is very important to be mindful of who is around or watching. Its true one should not be a stumbling block to thier brother. However I would consider a stumbling block in this case as encouraging someone to get drunk with alcoholic beverages,pressure a recovering alcoholic to drink, or becoming angry and contentious with someone who disagrees with my beliefs concering the consumption of alcoholic beverges.
 
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