Dear Parishioners,

We are now two weeks into the Advent season and preparations are underway for Christmas Day and all the festivities. I’m sure that you have made your list of Christmas presents, booked your office party, planned your Christmas Day meal and decided when is the best time to visit the supermarket to avoid the Christmas rush. So much to do, so little time in which to do it. Practical preparations seem to dominate our lives and, if we’re not careful, they can have a tendency to take over.

Christmas is also a time when some of us can "over-indulge" in a glass or two of our favourite tipple. Lager and lime, gin and tonic, vodka and coke, whisky and dry ginger. Whatever you prefer, you always use a little mixer with it. When Jesus walked this Earth the standard alcoholic drink was wine and water. Back in those days the wines of Palestine were very heavy, strong and full of sediment. Before drinking at a feast the wines would be strained and diluted. At the Last Supper the wine was prepared in the same way.

From earliest times the wine brought to the Altar for Mass was already mixed with water. Even today at Mass as we prepare the gifts, the priest puts a little water in the wine. The practice began for practical reasons; Palestinian wine needed a mixer. It now has symbolic meaning for all Christians. The prayer said by the priest as he mixes the water and the wine goes as follows: "By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity".

The mixing of wine and water now has a deep symbolic meaning; it represents the Son of God uniting himself with a human nature. As a result, the wine mixed with water expresses for us how Jesus Christ is both God and man, in one Person. Christmas is when the Son of God is born as a man, yet remains God. As the water and wine are mixed, so are Heaven and Earth tied together.

We, who are of Earth, can be united to the God of Heaven just as Jesus’ human body was taken on by the Son of God. So, as you stock up on your spirits and mixers for Christmas, become a "mixer" yourself. Mix your own life with the Spirit of God by taking part in the Advent preparations. Come to Mass, join in the services, spend more time in prayer. He shares in our humanity, we can share in His divinity. Have a happy and holy Christmas

Fr John

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