As the saying goes, a bottle of wine begs to be shared. Given his fondness for both evangelization and metaphors, we're sure Pope Francis would agree.
Pope Francis speaks often about the joy of the Gospel -- the message of love that permeates the story of Christianity and that, when fully grasped, should encourage Christians to pour out that love to the world around them.
The pontiff focused his attentions on the importance of joy once again during his weekly General Audience at the Vatican. He spoke about a wedding feast in Cana mentioned in the gospel of John, where Jesus is said to have performed his first miracle.
According to the ancient story, when the hosts ran out of wine during the wedding, Jesus instructed the servants to fill a few stone jugs with water. Afterwards, when the servants drew the water back out of those same jugs, they saw that it had turned into the wine.
Francis pointed out that by starting his public ministry at a party, Jesus was signaling to his followers that the new Gospel he was teaching was meant to be a "herald of joy."
"Water is needed to live, but wine expresses the abundance of the banquet and the joy of the celebration," Francis said, according to a translation by Aleteia. "It is a wedding feast lacking wine; the newlyweds are embarrassed by this. Imagine finishing a wedding feast drinking tea; it would be an embarrassment."
"Wine is necessary for the celebration," he added.
Pope Francis, we couldn't agree more!
H/T: Catholic News Agency
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