From gold to leather bags, the wine is poured

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

On July 9, Pope Benedict celebrated Mass in Valencia, Spain, with what some consider to be the Holy Grail - what may be the cup of the Last Supper.

The Valencia chalice contains an agate cup, about six inches tall, similar to some made in Palestine around the first century.

Since Jesus' time, many types of vessels have held the wine for the Eucharist. These ranged from stone jars to gold chalices.

Wine has always played a role in the lives of Christians and their Jewish ancestors. Wine can come from various fruits - in fact, the Bible lists pomegranate wine as a drink for brides - but is most often from grapes. (Modern altar wine must be made from grapes.)

Biblical wine came from vineyards. The first vine grower in Scriptures was Noah, who planted a vineyard after the flood (Gn 9:20-21). Grapes were such an important crop, that the vine became a symbol of Israel and figured in Jesus' teaching. The grape harvest was central in the Jewish calendar and fell in autumn at the time of the Jewish New Year.

Wine presses were found in every vineyard. A wine press contained two vats - one in which grapes were placed and crushed and another, sometimes underground, that caught the pressed juice in jars. This fresh pressed wine, which fermented quickly, was "the new wine." New wine was the most potent. It needed to be placed in new leather wineskins, since these could expand as the wine fermented. (Jesus used that fact in a parable.)

Wineskins were the main containers for travelers carrying wine. Jesse sent one with his son David, when the boy went to serve King Saul (1Sam 16:7).

Wine was also stored in jars. And it was in jars that Jesus made new wine for his first miracle (Jn 2:1-11). This miraculous wine has symbolic meaning. The Catechism of the Catholic Church wrote that it "makes manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father's kingdom, where the faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of Christ" (n. 1335).

Then, at the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus also used wine to teach at the Last Supper. In Jewish meals, a cup of wine was used for the blessing at a meal's end. It is clear from the gospels and the first letter to the Corinthians, that Jesus shared one cup with his disciples. First century cups were of a variety of materials - stone, pottery and even glass. A covered pitcher held wine for pouring.

In the first years of the church, similar vessels were used - the first Eucharists were shared as part of a larger meal, with the blessing of bread and wine coming at the end. Jars of wine and loaves of bread were provided by the people.

As the church grew, Eucharistic celebrations moved to larger venues. The emphasis on one cup shared by all remained, so the cups became larger. Handles were sometimes added. As the church became an official religion in the Roman Empire, precious metals were sometimes used for the vessels for both bread and wine.

After the Roman Empire fell in the 8th century, liturgical practices changed. These were influenced by the rise of the Holy Roman Empire in Europe. Formalized practices for the liturgical use of bread and wine developed in a way that removed them from the common people. Wine, like bread, was prepared by clerics and religious, under strict rules.

Church laws developed that resulted in cups becoming chalices - of gold and silver, and designed to be elevated by the priest.

Reception of the Eucharist, both the bread and wine, declined. There is evidence that, while people still received wine at Communion, they did so with an increasing concern about spillage. Reception of the cup continued until the 12th century, but the wine was protected by dipping the host into it or sipping it through tubes from the cup.

Eventually, the Blood of Christ was reserved to the priest only. Just as the larger cups of earlier times showed that many people received the wine, smaller chalices from the 13th century onward show a restricted use of this part of the sacrament. Expensive chalices had elaborate bases and very small cups - since the priest was supposed to be able to swallow the contents "all in one draught."

Vatican II sought to return to practices of the early church, which included the sacrament of Eucharist shared in communion. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy wrote that "communion under both kinds may be granted when the bishops think fit" (n. 55). This led to frequent reception of the cup, first at weekday Mass (approved in 1971) and at the Sunday Mass (1978).

Types of wine vessels changed again, with ornate - and small cupped - chalices replaced by larger cups of various materials. The use of several cups, along with a flagon from which wine could be poured, also appeared. In 2003, the U.S. Bishops instructed that vessels for the Eucharist be made of precious materials "that do not easily break" (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, n. 329).

The return to sharing the cup and the bread - the Body and Blood of Christ - offers many lessons. Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the pope's household, recently said that Christ's use of wine - while reminding us of suffering - should remind us of joy.

"Why, precisely, did Jesus choose wine to signify his blood?" Fr. Cantalamessa asked. "... It represents joy, celebration; it does not represent usefulness so much (as bread does) but delight. It is not only made to drink, but also to toast" (Aug. 18).

And isn't that why Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding? To remind us that God is a God of joy and we are a people of rejoicing.