Water & Wine

A reader writes:

Hi Jimmy

I was listening of KIHM’s rebroadcast of Monday’s show this morning as I am

wont to do and enjoyed it as usual.  I liked your answer to the question

about why water is mixed with the wine at Mass and as I do know something

about the history of wine (I used to sell the stuff for a living) I do want

to expand on the subject if I may.

You said that wine in ancient times was concentrated.  This gives the

impression that it had a very low water to solids concentrate not unlike

juice concentrates that one buys in the grocery store today and to which one

adds water in order to drink.

But rather ancient wines were both slightly more alchoholic and considerably

sweeter than modern wines, cloyingly so.  Therefore it was part of all

Mediteranean cultures (all of whom were wine drinkers) to add water to the

wine simply to make it palatable.

Indeed the definition of immoderate drinker in Greco-Roman culture was not

one that drank to much, but rather one that drank unwatered wine.  The

implication being that if you did that you were too uncivilized to know

better.

Of course there were exceptions to the rule.  The wines of the Greek island

of Chios were considered to be of the highest qualtiy and it was considered

bad taste to dilute them.

So I suspect (and I admit I’m just making an educated surmise here) that in

the early days of the Church, when it was time for the Eucharist the

celebrant simply did what was the cultural norm and added the water to the

wine.  But I also suspect that fairly early on someone also realized that

this cultural norm also was a excellent symbol for the Incarnation and the

dvinization of man through the Eucharist as you mentioned and the prayers

were subsequently added.

Thanks much for the info!

(LINK TO THE READER’S BLOG.)

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin