When religion itself has lost these dimensions of spirituality, it withers on the vine, the grapes die, the soil is not nourished by contemplation and instead of wine, you get vinegar. Religion, instead of being the wine of life, it becomes vinegar, something bitter and sour. The great Sufi mystics especially but many others, as well often use wine and inebriation as a symbol of the spiritual journey, and we see that inebriation, joy and happiness of the spiritual reality in the words of the psalmist that I quoted. Even some of the mystics like Gregory of Nyssa use expressions like ‘sober intoxication’, to describe the experience of living in accordance with the laws of the inner world.
( Breakthrough by Laurence Freeman OSB )
