Hello Hello
My views are not the "Traditional" Catholic views wrt alcohol consumption. This is probably because the past 8 years of my life have been very retreat center oriented (2 of them being spent full-time in one!).
Alcohol consumption, even in ‘moderation’ can be a sin for some people.
This would be true where people do not get totally drunk, but the alcohol they consume "frees" them to
* loosen their tongues and abuse their family
* gossip
* physically / mentally / emotionally hurt ppl
* physically / mentally / emotionally hurt themselves
(I won't go on, you know the many evil effects of Alcohol - and the fact that one needn't be drunk to a point of stupor to manifest these effects)
But what about the person who is completely able to control his alcohol consumption? Who perhaps has just a peg a day or even a week or maybe just at social events.. does that make it a sin?
NO, absolutely not. It is not a sin.
But let me ask some questions here:
* Does this person who controls his alcohol consumption right now, know for a FACT that he will be able to do so in 5 or 10 years? Most Alcoholics did not start out that way. They started out as people who could control themselves. All of them will swear to the fact that they did not expect to turn out alcoholic.
The problem is that the more alcohol one consumes, the more it takes to satisfy one’s urge. Thus if one is used to drinking say two pegs every night, one peg is not going to do the drink. And one might even tend towards a third eventually.
On the other hand, with age, one’s body is less able to handle the same amounts of quantity one could earlier. A guy may, for example, have been able to drink 3 bottles of beer while in college, with absolutely no problems. Whereas now, as a middle aged man, it would probably be enough to put him over the edge.
On a personal note - I unfortunately have the uncanny ability to see potential future alcoholics. It is true that one can see the errors of his ways & reform/cut down before it turns hazardous. But it is also true that this does not often happen. Maybe it does with few who have attended retreats like our brother Vivian.
I do not know a single Catholic who does not have an alcoholic in the extended family. Hindi movies here in India always portray the alcoholic to be a “D’Souza” or “Fernandes” or to be from “Goa”.
Talk to an alcoholic Catholic about this & chances are that he who probably never reads the Bible will tell you that “Jesus turned water into wine”.
* Does this person know for a FACT that his drinking alcohol is not causing anyone to sin. (Rev. Eric, please pardon me, what I say following does not hold any disrespect to you). I know many priests who regularly consume alcohol, some even more than they can handle. Many people justify there alcohol consumption on the fact that “even the priest is drinking”. The same holds for people “in the Lord”, prayer group leaders, preachers etc.
Causing people to sin by our careless attitude is also a sin, for which we will be paid:
”And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.” (Mark 9:42)St. Paul talks about this in his letter to the Corinthians:
“ 9Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.”(1 Cor 
St. Paul is talking about eating food offered to idols in the above passage, but definitely the same message applies to alcohol. If the “exercise of your freedom” becomes “a stumbling block to the weak” are we not liable?
St. Paul was willing to give up
meat! – a big source of most of our diet – completely (“I will never again”), to as to ensure that his brother would not sin. Yet so many are unwilling to give up alcohol just because they do not presently have any problems with it.
I know a man who had a son. The man could control his drinking, the son couldn’t. There were times before the son’s problem manifested itself that the man himself offered alcohol to his son at parties etc. Eventually the man gave up alcohol; to be a “good example” to his son… it was too late. Sounds gory, but true. And worse still, not the only example of its kind.
What message are we giving to our kids when it comes to alcohol…? It’s ok to be totally drunk as long as you’re not driving? Our actions always speak louder than our words. And people are always watching what we do, more than listening to what we say.
Effective evangelization DEFINETELY calls for dying to self in this area, even if no problem is manifested right now.On a personal note – I have never touched a drop of alcohol in my life! My mum was very strict with us (my sister & me) when we were growing up. We were taught to “just say no” – pretty much like the drug concept. As a result today I never miss that what I’ve never known. I can totally enjoy myself at parties, I used to even club a lot & never even felt tempted to drink alcohol…
“Proverbs 22:6 Train [a] a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” The best way of leading/training is again, by example. It would have been very hard for my mother to convince us, if she herself was not a teetotaler.
I could go on – this is rather a pet topic, am very against alcohol, have seen evil become more and more apparent with every consecutive glass drunk but I’ll end my rather long story here.
I would summarise as such:
(01) If you’re drinking alcohol, it doesn’t mean you’re sinning – both Seeker & Rev. Eric have correctly brought this out by their posts.
BUT
(02) It also doesn’t mean that if you continue this way that you will continue not sinning. Studies prove the opposite is true.
(03) Hence it is better to quit completely
(04) It is also imperative that we, who bear the name of Christ, who call ourselves ‘Christians’, should bear witness to the world in our clean living.
I know that my views are rather fundamentalist and not even all the “good” people I know think likewise, but to quote Fr. Mathew E.
“I have seen tens of thousands of families completely destroyed by alcohol. I have not even seen one who is the better from it.”Blessings,
Melody
The Glorify God Community
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