Does the Bible Really Say That?: Discovering Catholic Teaching in Scripture Read Online Free PDF

Blood (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26).
    Saint Paul didn’t say, “Don’t drink wine” (see Ephesians 5:18), which would have been a complete prohibition. Rather, he said, don’t to drink wine to excess.
    The Catholic Church teaches, as common sense testifies, that drinking wine and other forms of alcohol, like food, sex, laughter and dancing, is good when enjoyed in its proper time and context. To abuse any good thing is a sin, but the thing abused does not itself become sinful. As Saint Paul said, “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be enslaved by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12).
    Some who oppose drinking argue the kind of wine Christ approved of is the kind that doesn’t intoxicate. But “wine” without alcohol isn’t wine at all—it’s essentially grape juice.
    The Lord drank wine (Luke 7:34)—often enough, apparently, that his detractors accused him of being a drunkard. His first recorded miracle was to turn water into wine (John 2:1–11). If the Lord had changed water into grape juice, why would the head waiter at the wedding at Cana have said, “Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10)?
    Guzzle as much grape juice as you like, and you won’t get drunk. It won’t impair your ability to distinguish between “poor” and “good.” But drinking too much wine will.
     
    Further Reading: Genesis 14:18; Deuteronomy 7:12–16; Ecclesiastes 10:17, 19; Sirach 31:12–30; Tobit 4:14–15; Psalm 104:15; Proverbs 23:21; Habakkuk 2:15; Isaiah 5:11; Luke 21:34–36; Romans 13:12–14; 1 Timothy 5:23
    CCC , 1801, 1852, 1866, 2290

CHAPTER 9
    Humility
     
    In The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, “Pride grows in the human heart like lard on a pig.” 1
    Since all of us suffer in varying degrees from the ill effects of pride, we would do well to go on a spiritual diet and trim away some of the lard. Happily, the Lord has created a fast-acting secret ingredient to help us shed our pride. We call it humility. It’s the virtue that corrects this vice and Sacred Scripture contains a lot of information on how, with God’s grace, we can grow in humility and conquer our pride.
    The word “humility” derives from the Latin word for dirt, humus . This tells us something about the quality of lowliness inherent in humility for what could be more lowly than the ground beneath one’s feet?
    Humility is the virtue by which we acknowledge our own limitations and imperfections knowing that God, our loving Father, is the Creator and Author of all life. It allows us to freely submit ourselves to him without pride and in willing service to others.
    We can see the first reminder of man’s need for humility in God’s words to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:19, “In the sweat of your face / you shall eat bread / till you return to the ground, / for out of it you were taken: / you are dust, / and to dust you shall return.” Every Ash Wednesday, the priest who traces the sign of the cross on your forehead with ashes repeats this ancient reminder. The ashes signify both the humility of repentance and penance (i.e., wearing sackcloth and ashes, cf. Isaiah 58:5, Daniel 9:3, Luke 10:13) as well as the fact that we will all, eventually, die and our bodies will return for a time to the lowly humus from which we were brought forth in Adam and Eve.
    Here are just a few of the many Scriptural teachings on the beauty and importance of the virtue of humility:
Matthew 5:5   “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
    Matthew 11:29   “[Christ said,] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
    1 Peter 5:5   “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives