The season of Lent, and the book of Joel
Some weeks ago it was Ash Wednesday again, and whether one assisted at Holy Mass in the “ordinary“ or the “extraordinary“ form of the Roman rite, whether one attended the rite promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI or the traditional Latin rite, in each case a passage from the book of the prophet Joel was read out to mark the beginning of the season of Lent, of repentance and fasting before the Paschal feast.
“Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God?
Joel 2: 12-17
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep. Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, Where is their God?’“
Already in these verses we find a promise hidden, and not even a small one: When we “rend our hearts“ und “turn to the Lord“, He may not only show us how “rich in mercy“ He is in forgiving our sins and restoring us – but in the abundance of His mercy, He may even “leave a blessing behind“ beyond that.
And so we are reminded that the season of Lent is actually not austere and dry, but a holy and fruitful time bringing forth new blessings. It always coincides with the first buds of spring, thus being already a new day that comes to its fullness and height at the Paschal mysteries. Already now we are in the Paschal tide.
The new wine, and the fresh oil
The book of Joel goes on to say, pointing forward to Pesach and Pentecost:
“Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. In response to his people the Lord said: I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a mockery among the nations. I will remove the northern army far from you, and drive it into a parched and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its rear into the western sea; its stench and foul smell will rise up. Surely he has done great things!
Joel 2: 18-29
Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things! Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. O children of Zion, be glad
and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.“
When I read a biblical book, I still like to use a translation that is left over from the days before I converted to the Catholic faith, the “Tree of Life translation“ published by the Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society. It renders Joel 2: 18-19 like this:
“ADONAI will be zealous for His land, and have compassion on His people. ADONAI will answer and say to His people: ‘Behold, I will send you the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil, and you will be satisfied with it.“
Joel 2: 18-19
On Ash Wednesday this year, it were exactly these lines that captured my special attention and interest. There was something in the ring and sound of “the new wine, and the fresh oil“ that struck a certain string in my heart.
And again, later on God proclaims through the mouth of the prophet Joel:
“The treshing floors will be full of grain and the vats will overflow with new wine and fresh oil.“
Joel 2: 24
These are very strong and vivid images of joy, abundance and renewal. They point to the grain and wine of the Eucharist as well as the anointing and burning oil of the Holy Spirit.
And at the end of a long dark winter they instilled into me new hope.
Who is the “new wine“?
Which other verses in Sacred Scripture come to your mind when you hear the promise of God to give His people “new wine“?
Maybe this one from the gospel of Matthew:
“Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?‘ And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.‘“
Matthew 9: 14-17
Interestingly enough this passage is about fasting – the very thing that we try to do during Lent, as we wait for the recurring revelation of Jesus, the Bridegroom, in His passion on the cross.
Jesus explains why His disciples do not fast unlike the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees. It is not because they shall or will not fast in general. It is because the wedding feast between the heavenly Bridegroom and His people is still on. There is a time for everything.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.“
And therefore in the Catholic tradition, there is a time for everything as well: a time for weeping, mourning and for spiritual battles, like Lent, and a time for laughing, dancing, and peace, like the Paschal feast.
Then Jesus goes on to say that He and His teaching, His way are “new wine“ that needs to be put into “fresh wineskins“. With Him something new is beginning, and something old has ended with the preaching of his cousin John who prepared the way for the Messiah.
In a book I read in recent days on The New Wine of Dominican spirituality by Paul Murray OP I found some interesting remarks by Saint Thomas Aquinas concerning a passage in the eleventh chapter of the gospel of Matthew that is somehow related to the one quoted above. Saint Thomas Aquinas is frequently mentioned in Paul Murray‘s book because he was a member of the Order of Preachers founded by Saint Dominic de Guzmán.
“As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’
Matthew 11: 7-19
Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears listen!
But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
And here is Saint Thomas Aquinas on this passage as reported by Paul Murray OP:
“This particular chapter in St Matthew‘s Gospel received notable attention from St Thomas in his commentary on the Gospel. ‘John (the Baptist),‘ he writes, ‘chose the way of austerity (viam austeritatis) but the Lord chose for himself a way of gentleness (viam lenitatis).‘ And what is more, ‘John marked the end of the Old Testament in which grave (matters) were imposed. But Christ marked the beginning of the New Law, which proceeds by the way of clemency.‘ Compared with St John, ‘Christ assumed a more human life‘, which means he accepted living a social life. ‘The human being,‘ Thomas says, ‘is naturally social.‘“
Paul Murray OP: The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality. A Drink Called Happiness, Bloomsbury 2006, p. 149-150
Think about it: The way of Jesus – His “new wine“ – is “a way of gentleness“ and “the way of clemency“…
There is yet another very important scene in the New Testament scriptures that mentions “new wine“… It is in chapter two of the Acts of the Apostles:
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Acts 2: 1-21
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.‘ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?‘ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.‘
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’“
Saint Peter connects the outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the feast of Pentecost with the prophecy in the book of Joel, and while he is, on the one hand, rejecting the idea going around that the apostles are “drunk“, “filled with new wine“, he is, on the other hand, confirming it in a metaphorical or mystical sense, especially because the expression of the “new wine“ is, as we know, part of God‘s promise in the book of Joel: These men are filled with the new wine of the Holy Spirit.
“Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love.“
Song of Songs 5: 1
“‘Drink, friends, and be intoxicated!‘ This astonishing imperative from the Song of Songs, which Thomas quoted in his commentary on St John‘s Gospel, is taken up and quoted again in his commentary on Psalm 35. But, this time, with an unexpected vividness, Thomas speaks of the force of the torrent of God‘s Spirit within the soul. It is, he says, of such force at times that there is no way it can be resisted. ‘And just as those who hold their mouths to the fountain of wine become drunk or inebriated, likewise those who bring their desires, or hold their mouths, as it were, to the fountain of life and sweetness, become drunk (in the spirit).‘“
Paul Murray OP: The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality. A Drink Called Happiness, Bloomsbury 2006, p. 141-142
Think about it: One can be filled, “drunk“ with the Holy Spirit as if with new wine… Everyone who has ever enjoyed the effects of too many cups of wine knows that it is a mind-altering state: One walks differently, one perceives things differently and one talks and reacts differently. By comparison, it would be the same, I guess, if we were drinking from the fountain of the Holy Spirit until we are “intoxicated“. We would live out the way of Jesus Christ that is the “new wine“ on a whole new plane… as if putting it into fresh wineskins that are actually able to hold and preserve this new wine.
Time and time again we need the refreshment and renewal of our faith and practice, especially because we can get very stuck in certain ways of understanding and doing things after a while, sticking with them even if they do not lead us to where we want to go, or lead us so harshly that we barely dare to walk, or so weakly that we barely even stand. The paschal feast, this outpouring and overflowing of the sweet wine of God’s love for us that is accompanied by the renewal of our baptismal promise, is a fountain of refreshment for us that is recurring every year.
And on top of that, the Holy Spirit who lives in us helps us with “getting unstuck“ and brings to us “a breath of fresh air“ whenever we need it the most.
There is a famous saying by Pliny the Elder: In vino veritas. In wine there is truth. Well, then in “new wine“, there is a new understanding, a new vision, and a new grasp of truth.
Post scriptum: Saint Thomas Aquinas on the wine at the wedding feast at Cana
“Christ‘s visit to Cana – the joy of that visit – signifies for St Thomas, ‘the effect of God‘s words on our minds‘. For these words, he says, cause delight and joy. And ‘this is signified in the miracle of the wine, which, as the Psalm (103: 15) says, gladdens the heart of man.‘ This observation concerning joy occurs in Thomas‘ commentary on St John‘s gospel. It seems to parallel a statement made, centuries later, in Fyodor Dostoevsky‘s novel The Brothers Karamazov. Alyosha, the youngest of the brothers, hearing this particular text being read from the Gospel, exlaims: ‘I love that passage; it‘s Cana in Galilee, the first miracle … Ah, that miracle, what a lovely miracle! It wasn‘t sorrow, it was human happiness that Christ extolled, and the first miracle he worked was to bring men happiness.‘
Paul Murray OP: The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality. A Drink Called Happiness, Bloomsbury 2006, p. 139-141
Of course, Thomas‘ concern in his commentary is not with the natural effects of ordinary wine, but with the supernatural effects of the new wine of the Gospel. He is interested here not so much in the literal meaning of the text, but in what he calls ‘the mystical sense‘. One can find no reference in this section of St John‘s Gospel to preachers or to preaching. But Thomas cannot resist bringing in the subject. And he does this with a quite unembarassed sleight of hand, employing the rubric of ‘the mystical sense‘. The text in question is Jesus‘ request to the servants ‘to pour out some drink and bring it to the head waiter‘ (Jn. 2: 8). ‘In the mystical sense,‘ Thomas tell us, ‘those who pour out the water are preachers.‘ He quotes Isaiah: ‘With joy you will draw water from the spring of the Saviour‘ (Isa. 12: 3). And then he goes on to say that: ‘When the word of the Gospel, which was hidden under the letter of the law, is entrusted to preachers, it is as though wine made from water is poured out.‘ The link between wine and the spirit of the Gospel seems to be instinctive in Thomas. His commentary, for example, on the small phrase, ‘They have no wine‘ (Jn. 2: 4), draws out with such plain eloquence and profound insight the differences between the Old Law and the New, that I cannot resist quoting it here at some length.
‘They have no wine. Here we should note that before the Incarnation of Christ three wines were running out: the wine of justice, of wisdom, and of charity or grace. Wine stings, and in this respect it is a symbol of justice. But wine also delights the heart, ‘Wine cheers the heart of man‘ (Ps. 103: 15). And in this respect wine is a symbol of wisdom, the meditation of which is enjoyable in the highest degree: ‘Her companionship has no bitterness‘ (Wis. 8: 16). Further, wine intoxicates: ‘Drink, friends, and be intoxicated, my dearly beloved‘ (Song 5: 1). And in this respect wine is a symbol of charity … The wine of justice was indeed running out in the old law, in which justice was imperfect. But Christ brought it to perfection: ‘Unless your justice is greater than that of the scribes and of the Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven‘ (Mt. 5: 20). The wine of wisdom was also running out, for it was hidden and symbolic … but Christ clearly brought wisdom to light: ‘He was teaching them as one having authority‘ (Mt. 7: 9). The wine of charity was also running out, because they had received a spirit of serving only in fear. But Christ converted the water of fear into the wine of love (aquam timoris … in vinum caritatis) when he gave us ‘the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry: Abba, Father‘ (Rom. 8: 15).‘“