God made man make good wine
It’s hard to imagine a more eloquent expression of the whole salvation project.
Dear Friends,
My editor at LifeSite News has made a poetry video. It’s only one minute long, but it has made me happy all week. See for yourselves:
Video: Upon God the Wine-Giver (for Easter Sunday) by Hilaire Belloc
Recited by Paul Smeaton, Editorial Director of LifeSite News
Though Man made wine, I think God made it too;
God, making all things, made Man make good wine.
He taught him how the little tendrils twine
About the stakes of labour close and true.
Then next, with intimate prophetic laughter,
He taught the Man, in His own image blest,
To pluck and waggon and to—all the rest!
To tread the grape and work his vintage after.So did God make us, making good wine’s makers;
So did he order us to rule the field.
And now by God are we not only bakers
But vintners also, sacraments to yield;
Yet most of all strong lovers. Praised be God!
Who taught us how the wine-press should be trod.
I suspect that Belloc composed this poem to answer Victor Hugo’s quip, “God made only water, but man made wine.” Their lives just overlapped; Belloc was 15 years old when Hugo died. Both writers were Frenchmen; Belloc later received English citizenship and became a friend and collaborator of G. K. Chesterton.
It’s hard to imagine a more eloquent expression of the whole salvation project. God reveals Himself through creation, even making us co-creators. Grace elevates and perfects nature, most especially in the sacraments. God has good work planned for all of us, strengthening us to follow Him in joy even to the cross—the allusion of the last line.
I did not know this poem before I heard Paul recite it. Upon hearing it, I loved it immediately, and I asked Paul to send me the text so I could get the words exactly right. My response would not have been the same if I had merely read the words on my own. Love for this poem was conveyed to me by hearing it from someone who loved it before me.
In the same way, faith is transmitted, not by words alone, but by all of us who love it and live it.
Happy Easter!
Jennifer Hay
Knoxville Nobility
Jennifer.Hay@KnoxvilleNobility.com
865.804.9721
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