The second reading warns not to get drunk of wine.  This can be interpreted in many ways. The most literal way is to avoid drinking too much wine.  For some this may be a problem.  Many people are habitual drinkers and want to have their glass of wine even early in the morning.  Another interpretation is to not get drunk with the wine of malice offered by the world.  St. Paul reminds the days are evil.  Unfortunately, many have drunk from this wine of the world, and have lost their senses.  They are drunk with all the evil actions the world proposes as a wine (here using the image of wine). What they speak and what they do is full of malice.  Another interpretation is some people are drunk of the wine of foolishness.  This is a difficult word to say but it is mentioned several times in the readings.  In the first reading it is described as lacking understanding and a simple mind.  Wisdom invites to her house adorned with seven columns to drink from the good wine of knowledge and understanding and to forsake foolishness.  Some people have drunk to excess the wrong wine, not the one from wisdom but from the world.  In the second reading, St. Paul uses similar language to ask the community to be filled with good wine provided by the Spirit, and to avoid the cheap wine of the world, which is full of ignorance, debauchery, and foolishness.  Another interpretation is to avoid getting drunk of the wine of power.  This is an image used often with the phrase “drunk of power.”  Again, all are called to avoid drinking from this wine.  How many care more about their status and having authority over others than serving?  Drunk of power with things of the world, but also with things of the church.  From wanting to be lead of some ministry to wanting to aspire to top places in the hierarchy.  Another interpretation is getting drunk with the wine of violence. In the Gospel reading, the Jews are quarreling among themselves trying to decipher who Jesus is in a very human level.  St. Paul reminds the days are evil where people can easily resort to violence to trying to resolve their problems. There are violent people out there who have drunk too much of this wine. Finally, there is caution of getting drunk with the wine of unbelief.  It is very interesting how the unbelief progresses with those who witnessed the sign of the bread and fish as weeks of these readings have passed. These last weeks we have been reflecting about this sign of Jesus.  The first week they were ready to make him king, and now three weeks later, it has come to pass now for them Jesus is only but a man.  Not even a holy man, just this man who is crazy wanting to give his flesh for food.  The people there had drunk from the wine of unbelief and that is the same wine many people today drink, not in the thousands but in the millions. How many people do not understand the Eucharist and openly mock what it stands for?  All people who have drunk from the wrong wines will suffer the same fate of their ancestors, death, but those who have drank from the right choicest wine of salvation, will have life eternal.  Let us choose the True Wine and avoid falling for the cheap wine of the world.  It makes all the difference for eternity.