Beer Brings Us Closer to God

September 9, 2018 is International Buy Your Priest a Beer Day. What better way to celebrate the Lord’s Day than with a beer given and shared by those around me and all the priests throughout the world. With all the heaviness and hurt that I have been writing about for the past few weeks and I will be writing more about in the future…let’s talk about God, prayer, the spiritual life and beer for this week.
Several years after university my roommate from Holy Names College began the hobby of brewing beer. This was in the first wave of what is now fairly common. Darby living in the basement of his grandmother’s house in San Fransisco was a wonderful friend. Between bike riding, working, studying and the many other things we were doing we found time to brew some wonderful beers. One thing I learned very early on was: I am not a brewer, I’m a taster. It is way to technical and precise for my skill set. I observed that choosing to brew a beer was part technician and part artist. To brew a great beer you must be too precise whereas as a baker (my skill set) is much more forgiving in the creation of a great bread. So, what about the brewing of beer brings us closer to God, helps us to pray, grows our spiritual life and gives us joy.
Beer brings us closer to God: when we recognize a gift as blessing we then begin to understand how God calls us to be united in love. One of the greatest joys we had in brewing the beer was the community and unity of working together. There was a wonderful gift in the community that was formed. Yes, there was the gift of enjoying the product of Darby’s labor but more importantly their was exploration of the art of brewing seeking new flavors to be pulled out of the barley, hops and other ingredients all the while remaining within the boundaries naturally flowing from the act of brewing. In much the same way our faith asks us to joyfully pull forth from our lives the flavors of God’s love for us as we seek to more fully know and understand the truth of Jesus gift of the Cross and Resurrection.
Beer helps us to pray: This is a pretty simple leap…because with each home brew attempt there is a leap of faith necessary. There is the making and the prayers that all has gone well in the first step. There is the bottling and waiting for the fermentation and settling of the beer. There is hoping for the taste and texture dreamed about in the fashioning of the beer. And finally there is the expecting and rejoicing on the day the bottle is opened and the beer is enjoyed. All of these actions are prayerful in nature as we come to God. We must have faith for even the first steps in our conversation with God to begin as we patiently wait and hope in the blessings of life even through the failures (and there were many) knowing the conversation would continue to be learned and joined in a deeper understanding of expectation and rejoicing in the wonder of God’s divine love when we see Him face to face.
Beer grows our spiritual life: Beer grows the virtue of prudence. One of my favorite podcasts is “The Catholic Man Show” and the first part of the show is always a review a “manly beverage” and talk about the flavor of the drink but they also remind us that drinking involves the virtue of prudence. Simply put we are called to govern and discipline ourselves through the use of our reason. Now granted, prudence was not a virtue that I practiced with great discipline in my youth but like all virtues, they are learned through time and practice. Our spiritual life, as St. Paul reminds us (1 Cor 13:11 and 3:2) is being nurtured into a greater understanding and richer blessing of God.
Beer gives us joy for life: At the end of the day, all the work done, the waiting over, the food cooked and the beer opened the circle is complete as the community gathers to share the fruits of the labor. (sounds a little like Mass) We join in the true blessing of God where conversations of life; the joys and sorrows, the happy and sad moments equally gathered and blessed in our gathering where two or three are gathered.
As I finish I know these little thoughts can be applied to many, many things because God’s goodness is in all things when we join together with one another in love. May God bless you and please continue to pray for the sanctification, purification and healing of our Church.
St. Arnold, patron of brewers… pray for us.
God Bless
Fr. Mark