For God is the judge. One he putteth down, and another he lifteth up: For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of pure wine full of mixture. And he hath poured it out from this to that: but the dregs thereof are not emptied: all the sinners of the earth shall drink. (Psalm 74, 8-9, None on Ferial Thursdays, Roman Breviary)
A detail of an image of the "Mystic wine press" (this specific one from a stained glass panel in the Church of Saint Stephen on the Hill - Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, where the relics of the patron saint of Paris, St. Genevieve, are located), is our header for the month of October, accompanied by the curious words of Psalm 74: "in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of pure wine full of mixture". "Calix vini meri plenus misto", a "chalice of pure wine, full of mixture"?... It is a strange figure, but it recalls the teaching of the Lord regarding the law, purity and impurity. Saint Augustine explains it:
"In the hand of the Lord there is a cup of pure wine full of mixture" Justly so. And He has poured out of this upon this man; nevertheless, the dreg thereof has not been emptied; there shall drink all the sinners of earth. Let us be somewhat recruited; there is here some obscurity...
The first question that meets us is this, of pure wine, full of mixture. How pure, if of mixture? But when he says, the cup in the hand of the Lord (to men instructed in the Church of Christ I am speaking), you ought not indeed to paint in your heart God as it were circumscribed with a human form, lest, though the temples are shut, you forge images in your hearts. This cup therefore does signify something. We will find out this. But in the hand of the Lord, is, in the power of the Lord. For the hand of God is spoken of for the power of God. For even in reference to men ofttimes is said, he has it in hand: that is, in his power he has it, when he chooses he does it.
Of pure wine full of mixture. In continuation he has himself explained: He has inclined, he says, from this unto this man; nevertheless the dreg thereof has not been emptied. Behold how it was full of mixed wine. Let it not therefore terrify you that it is both pure and mixed: pure because of the genuineness thereof, mixed because of the dreg. What then in that place is the wine, and what the dreg? And what is that He has inclined from this unto this man, in such sort that the dreg thereof was not emptied?
...The cup therefore full of pure wine in the hand of the Lord, as far as the Lord gives me to understand,. ..the cup of pure wine full of the mixed, seems to me to be the Law, which was given to the Jews, and all that Scripture of the Old Testament, as it is called; there are the weights of all manner of sentences. For therein the New Testament lies concealed, as though in the dreg of corporal Sacraments. The circumcision of the flesh is a thing of great mystery, and there is understood from thence the circumcision of the heart. The Temple of Jerusalem is a thing of great mystery, and there is understood from it the Body of the Lord. The land of promise is understood to be the Kingdom of Heaven. The sacrifice of victims and of beasts has a great mystery: but in all those kinds of sacrifices is understood that one Sacrifice and only victim of the Cross, the Lord, instead of all which sacrifices we have one; because even those figured these, that is, with those these were figured. That people received the Law, they received commandments just and good. What is so just as, you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not speak false testimony, honour your father and mother, you shall not covet the property of your neighbour, one God you shall adore, and Him alone you shall serve, all these things belong to the wine.
But those things carnal have as it were sunk down in order that they might remain with them, and there might be poured forth from thence all the spiritual understanding. But the cup in the hand of the Lord, that is, in the power of the Lord: of pure wine, that is, of the mere Law: is full of mixed, that is, is together with the dreg of corporal signs.
...
All sinners shall drink, but see, who the dreg, who the wine. For those by drinking the dreg have come to nought: these by drinking the wine have been justified. I would dare to speak of them even as inebriated, and I shall not fear: and O that all you were thus inebriated. Call to mind, Your cup inebriating, how beautiful! But why? Do ye think, my brethren, that all those who by confessing Christ even willed to die, were sober? So drunk they were, that they knew not their friends. All their kindred, who strove to divert them from the hope of Heavenly rewards by earthly allurements, were not acknowledged, were not heard by them drunken. Were they not drunken, whose heart had been changed? Were they not drunken, whose mind had been alienated from this world? There shall drink, he says, all the sinners of the earth. But who shall drink the wine? Sinners shall drink, but in order that they may not remain sinners; in order that they may be justified, in order that they may not be punished.
Saint Augustine
Enarrationes in Psalmos
[Personal recess.]
