As a city dweller and person who was not very exposed to agricultural life, I did not know much about the art of winemaking. I did not know much about the different types of grapes, their complexities, or how the soil types and the mix ratio all play into how different wines and numerous vineyards are able to stand out from one another. Perhaps some will like a stronger, darker, bolder, and more noted wine, while others enjoy a lighter type of wine. However, each winery has its own unique character, just as a different batch of wine has its own unique taste and complexity. Therefore, I would like to reflect on a spiritual lesson that I have learned from the simple grapes.
First, it is important to note that our typical, modern table grapes are engineered to be more appealing, but they actually have less juice than grapes that are grown for winemaking. They are more eye-catching and plumped up, and have more pulp but less juice, so the consumers can enjoy biting into them. However, they tend to be more on the bland and typical side because they are engineered to give more neutral flavorings and geared for mass production. As a matter of fact, since many consumers want their grapes to be conveniently eaten, many table grapes are seedless, too. They will definitely lack depth and flavor if they are to be used for winemaking.
If you walk through a winery’s vineyards, you will see that wine grapes are much smaller, have very thick skins, and contain more seeds. All of those factors impart more flavor and depth to the wine. Furthermore, if you look at the soil types that are being used for vineyards, you will quickly find that they are chosen to be near hillsides and more mountainous areas. Harsher conditions and environments force the vines and their roots to go deeper to find nourishment and nutrients. The same type of grapes can be used, but each vineyard will produce a totally different set of products because the unique compositions of the weather, soils, grape qualities, and wine masters’ skillsets all play big parts in the end product. When we drink wine, we are able to taste the different complexities and distinctive notes because of each vineyard’s unique conditions and factors. It is, therefore, an art for wine masters to know the particular characters of their grapes and vines in order to properly mix and highlight their notes.
We can use this lesson from the grapes and apply it to the uniqueness of the universal Church. I believe too many of us expect the Church to be like a uniform, commercialized, and consumer-driven version of table grapes instead of recognizing the complexity and uniqueness of local dioceses and regions. We oftentimes demand and expect smaller, poorer, or lesser-known areas of the Church to comply and become like what we are used to in our own consumeristic, busy, developed, comfortable, institutional, and western version of our liking. We love to impose our particular demands and expectations of American standards on other parts of the universal Church because we think we are right, or this is how we think reality should be for all. Nonetheless, this cookie-cutter and uniform mindset robs the richness of the Lord‘s vineyards and subconsciously dismisses the Holy Spirit‘s power and working through the People of God. Perhaps we need to remember that the Sanctifier and Paraclete endows us with different gifts and charisms for His greater glory and effective preaching of the Good News to all. Not all of us are the same… we are a universal Church of many people and cultures!
The Sacred Scriptures teach us that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches! We are all connected to Him and in Him. Because of Him, we find our universal identity as His Mystical Body. In the Church, we find our catholicity and common identity. However, we are also unique because we are different parts of the one Body. Our uniqueness does not make us turn against one another, or should it make us turn things into a game of who gets what or can influence more with what they have, but they are there for us to complement each other. As a matter of fact, the most “productive” and “effective” parts of the Church are found in the developing, poorer, or more challenging parts of the world.
There are so many of our brothers and sisters who are suffering for their faith. There are so many who have to make daily and personal choices of letting go of worldly riches, social statuses, or political influences to be believers. Many of our spiritual siblings are choosing to make the Church‘s mission their own by letting their faith be lived out loud and in service of their neighbors. The parts of the Church that are flourishing are those that allow the Good News to set them free and allow themselves to be empowered by their faith instead of the secularistic, consumeristic, or political voices.
On the contrary, we also recognize the more comfortable, institutionalized, and developed parts of the Church where evangelization, service, and personal commitment to the life of faith have ceased. We have seen strong centers of Catholicism in the past, now sadly become vocal but serviceless and secular regions. In those local areas, people tend to like their life of faith being catered to them and served in ways that they like, instead of being challenged, drawn out, and pushed to grow in discipleship. Too many in those areas want to be armchair, free-thinking, vocal, and criticizing people, but never proactive in letting the Gospel values change and form them. It is sad when former strong parts of the Church only keep a skeletal and pseudo-Christian-like ethos but no longer desire to take on the call of discipleship to live out their real commitment to be Christians.
Perhaps too many of us have missed the mark! We have bought into the consumeristic version and become table grapes that might look plump but taste bland and typical without any uniqueness, finesse, depth, substance, complexity, or strength. We stop growing when we become more worried about what is comfortable and good for us instead of dying to ourselves so that the life of Christ grows stronger and more in depth with us. If we stop letting ourselves be humble and open in order to be conformed to Christ Jesus, our roots will remain shallow, and branches will dwindle by the slightest changes of the season and life.
If we want to be good grapes in the Lord‘s vineyards, we need to allow our unique situations and states of life to push us to find a deeper source of nourishment and nutrients through a life of prayer and worship. Our life of discipleship needs to make us develop more maturity and substance to respond to the different complexities of life. We draw life from Him, but that is not to be held back only for our own because we are to share it with others as well. We are unique as individuals, as well as members of the larger local church, with our own characters and depth. The gifts that have been bestowed on each and every one of us are endowed by the Holy Spirit to complement and help the Church grow, and the Gospel gets preached. Our particular charisms are not just for our own self-glorification or to become something that divides and separates us from one another. Our different gifts, charisms, and life journeys help us to complement each other so that, through the power and working of the Holy Spirit, we can make the Kingdom known throughout the whole world.
We are Christ‘s own disciples, instruments of the Holy Spirit, and the Father‘s children by grace and the sacraments. Therefore, let us act no longer for ourselves or for our own particular likings and goods, but to grow and learn to be where He has planted us. We are Catholics, belonging to the greater and universal Church, sharing one common life of faith, but we are also unique in how we can respond and make the Kingdom known in our very own parishes, deaneries, dioceses, areas, regions, nations, and larger parts of the world. May we find the balance in loving our catholicity in the universal Church, as well as growing and enriching others where we have been planted. May we have the humility to trust in Him and the courage to push through our own comfort zones, barriers, and humanity to find true nourishment so we can, in turn, nourish others as well.
I hope a lesson that I have learned from my time living in California’s Central Coast wine regions helps you, too, in your own journey. May we be a real fine wine that “gladdens men’s hearts,” as well as being able to warm and cure others’ ailments because we draw nourishment from Him. (cf. Psalm 104:15, 1 Corinthians 5:23) Let us be real grapes that make fine wine instead of the typical, commercialized, cheapened, and generic versions of the real thing.
Peace be with you.