1. Augustine of Hippo's idea that Jesus, in a way, just sped up the process that occurs over the course of a year in the ordinary experience, and your statement that he helps us (and all creation) become who we should be.
2. Jesus is the "one who cares for his people with a kind of effective abundance."
The image that springs to mind is one of overflowing goodness, of grace on grace, of generosity without measure, of fulfillment and completion and perfection (which also means completion).
A thorough consideration of the wine miracle at Cana, Jesus making "enough to lay out the whole village for a week." (Reginald Fuller) But I didn't see mention of the importance of wine as a disinfectant and purifier in water. That leads to other gospel themes...
I have to say that I’m not convinced that this was an understanding or practice in the way we seem to assume and is often repeated. It’s a much bigger topic but they had no germ theory of disease - even in the 19th century English physicians wouldn’t believe for ages that cholera came from water rather than vapors. We find ancient interest in adding water to wine to thin it, but I am unaware of any text that suggests either the addition of wine to water to purify or the use of wine instead of water to avoid disease.
There's no question about the medicinal part. That article however is a bit general and doesn't mention "purification" after the abstract! Again, I'm unaware of any evidence that people thought adding wine to water "disinfected" it.
Great fleshing out of this sign! Its sacramental implications are interesting. Is the wine of the Eucharist mere flourish?
Indeed no!
Two ideas struck me:
1. Augustine of Hippo's idea that Jesus, in a way, just sped up the process that occurs over the course of a year in the ordinary experience, and your statement that he helps us (and all creation) become who we should be.
2. Jesus is the "one who cares for his people with a kind of effective abundance."
The image that springs to mind is one of overflowing goodness, of grace on grace, of generosity without measure, of fulfillment and completion and perfection (which also means completion).
How can we open our spirits to this?
A thorough consideration of the wine miracle at Cana, Jesus making "enough to lay out the whole village for a week." (Reginald Fuller) But I didn't see mention of the importance of wine as a disinfectant and purifier in water. That leads to other gospel themes...
I have to say that I’m not convinced that this was an understanding or practice in the way we seem to assume and is often repeated. It’s a much bigger topic but they had no germ theory of disease - even in the 19th century English physicians wouldn’t believe for ages that cholera came from water rather than vapors. We find ancient interest in adding water to wine to thin it, but I am unaware of any text that suggests either the addition of wine to water to purify or the use of wine instead of water to avoid disease.
But thank you! It’s a very interesting question.
You might like this: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23560753/
Plus of course the Samaritan poured wine as well as oil on the wounded man (Lk. 10:34)...
There's no question about the medicinal part. That article however is a bit general and doesn't mention "purification" after the abstract! Again, I'm unaware of any evidence that people thought adding wine to water "disinfected" it.
Well, no. But they did know that wine was often safer to drink.