In his weekly video hosted by Ascension Presents, Father Mike Schmitz talks about a trip that his parents took to Oxford. During their time with the Brits, they stopped into a pub called Eagle and Child. They sent a picture of a bar booth to Father Mike
Why would Father Mike’s parents spend time in a pub in Oxford, take a picture of a booth, and send it to their son, the priest?
The Eagle and Child is a pub that C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their group of friends loving referred to as ‘The Inklings’ spent quite a bit of time in. Not only did they critique their writing together in the booths of the pub, but they also grew in Christian fraternity between sips of good English drinks.
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“I can just picture Tolkien and C.S. Lewis sitting there with a pint of some kind of beer. It always has this great romantic idea in my head of just these friends gathered together with a couple of beers, just becoming closer and closer friends. . . becoming better and better fellow Christians with each other,” Father Mike says.
If Tolkien and Lewis can share a pint together, drinking as Christian brothers together, how do we drink as Catholic Christians today?
In his weekly video, Father Mike encourages viewers to think of alcohol as a gift. But while alcohol is a gift, it’s not a gift to be indiscriminately taken in. He goes on to say that the classic English dons can teach Catholics today quite a bit about drinking.
“Chesterton, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis – they drank in a way that would help them live in the moment. They drank in a way that would help them savor the pleasures of the body that God has given to them. They drank in such a way that actually bonded them more because it didn’t distort the goodness of that moment, the goodness of themselves, and the goodness of alcohol.”
Catholics are called to enjoy the good things the Lord gives us. But we’re also called to glorify the Lord with our alcohol consumption. So the next time you’re drinking, don’t forget to give the glory to the Lord – and raise a glass to the English dons.
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