“Do not get drunk with wine…but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
He who becomes intoxicated with wine staggers, but he who becomes intoxicated with the Holy Spirit is rooted in Christ. Drunkenness makes a person forget what he knows; the “filling of the Spirit”, instead, brings understanding of things that were not formerly known.
The inebriation that comes from the Holy Spirit thus purifies of sin, renews the heart in fervor and enlightens the mind by a special knowledge of God—not a rational but an intuitive, experiential knowledge, accompanied by inner joy.
The Holy Spirit, when received in the sacraments and especially in the Eucharist (The Lord’s Supper), gives the soul a kind of intoxication that has nothing disordered or superficial about it. Rather this intoxication takes the soul beyond its normal experience, beyond its poverty and powerlessness, into a state of grace where there is no room for doubts, regrets or self-absorption but only for joy and thanksgiving. The soul is rooted in Christ.
The Holy Spirit has come to abide in you; do not make him withdraw; do not exclude him from your heart in any way. He is a good guest; He found you empty and He filled you; He found you hungry and He satisfied you; He found you thirsty and He has intoxicated you. May He truly intoxicate you! The Apostle said, “Do not be drunk with wine which leads to debauchery.” Then, as if to clarify what we should be intoxicated with, he adds, “But be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart” (see Ephesians 5:18ff). Doesn’t a person who rejoices in the Lord and sings to Him exuberantly seem like a person who is drunk? I like this kind of intoxication. The Spirit of God is both drink and light.1
This quote from Augustine gives us an idea of the understanding of Christian life at that time. Notice that the remarks do not apply to the life of a privileged few, the mystics, but apply to all baptized believers. When spiritually intoxicated, a person is out of his mind not because he is bereft of reason, as is the case with wine or drugs, but because he passes beyond reason into the light of God.
In Jesus’ life the cross was not merely the wood upon which he was hung at the end. Thomas à Kempis emphasized in the Imitation of Christ that Jesus’ whole life was the cross and suffering. His life of humility and obedience to the Father, His role as a “servant” of men (see Mark 10:45; John 13:13–16) and His proclamation of the Good News—all these comprised the cross.
To accomplish these things Jesus received the Holy Spirit (see Luke 3:21–22; 4:18–19), and by His faithful fulfillment of all these things He Himself became, through the Resurrection, “a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45), the giver of the Spirit to the Church.
And how are we to become more like Jesus? This is another answer that is found in the whole New Testament: by denying the flesh to live according to the Spirit. The flesh belongs to the old man, which is egotistical, inclined to evil and disordered desires, rebellious toward God and surrendered to the world. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24–25).
If “by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (see Romans 8:13). As in the days of Elijah (see 1 Kings 18:38), the fire that comes down from heaven only falls on the wood that is prepared for burning!
What is this death we are talking about? It is nothing depressing or sad; it is “being born again” to new life, a “new birth,” as Jesus said to Nicodemus. More concretely, in Paul’s words, it signifies no longer living only for ourselves but living in conformity with the resurrected Christ. It means opening ourselves to others with humility, obedience, charity and brotherly service.
The wine of the cross is the only wine that produces the intoxication of the Spirit!
Disciples: “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
Jesus: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
Disciples: “We are able.”
Jesus: “The cup that I drink you will drink; and the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized.” (See Mark 10:37–39)
This dialogue, like all the others in which Jesus was involved, is not in the past but is always occurring. To every disciple who asks Him—as we ourselves do—to be at His right hand in glory and to have the joy of His Spirit, Jesus lovingly shows the way: to drink His cup, to receive the baptism He received! We need to discover, then, how the Spirit is calling Jesus’ disciples today and then move courageously in that direction. We need to listen to “what the Spirit says to the Churches” (Revelation 2:7) because He reminds us of the things Jesus required “if any one wants to be my disciple.
A disciple “filled with and under the control of the Holy Spirit.”
- Augustine, Sermons, 225, Patrologia Latina 38, p.1098. See Saint Augustine, “Sermon 225,” 4, in. The Works of Saint Augustine: Sermons, John E. Rotelle, ed., volume 6, Edmund Hill, trans. (New Rochelle, N.Y.: New City, 1993), p. 250.
