The True Wine

Jesus is the true vine. His disciples are the branches.

So we’re the branches of Livia’s vine?


Was Livia the true wine?

The false wine. The falsest of wine. The wine of lies. To remind us that the world is lies, and nothing other than lies.


You have to drink this in memory of Him, right – that’s what he said: drink this in memory of me.

Are we supposed to drink this in memory of Livia? Is it about making her present to us, even here? About drawing together a community around her absence? After her deus abscondicus trick. Clever.

 So does she want us to worship her now? Is this the church of Livia?


Do this in memory of me, right. Drink this in memory of me. But remembering makes the past present. It’s about repeating the sacrifice of Christ. About drawing the community into it anew.

So we’re repeating the disappearance of Livia? Livia’s desertion?


Jesus poured out his own life. That’s what he said: This is my blood, poured out for many. That’s what communion wine is: his blood, poured out for the many.

I’m already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come.


Is this wine about pouring Livia out as a libation? Is it Livia’s disgustingness – and she could be disgusting. Are we part of the disgusting body of Livia? Livia’s anti–church?


It’s about showing why Livia’s disappearance wasn’t a defeat. That Livia never lost. That it wasn’t a retreat – or only a tactical retreat. That Livia meant to disappear. That it was a Gnostic strategy. Part of the Gnostic game. The game she played with the universe.


So you had Israel, which was supposedly God’s vine. That’s what it gets called. God plants the vine – Israel – and cares for it. But God’s vine fails to produce good fruit. Or it goes wild. It fails to bear the fruit of justice, faithfulness and love.

And Jesus says, I am the true vine. True means real – ultimate. Definitive. Jesus isn’t, like, one vine among others. He’s the true fucking vine – the source of life itself. And his disciples are the branches of the vine.

And communion is about participation in the life of the vine. It’s not about just following Jesus, doing what he did. It’s about sharing his life. And it’s certainly not about any institution or law or ritual – any temple, or rituals of the temple. It’s about his life – as the vine. As fulfilling Israel’s vocation. That we experience through the eucharist.


Jesus was the true wine. The source of life itself.

And Livia?

She wanted us to remember the falsehood. And the poison. The whole … atrocity.


Communion, right? Sharing in the life of Jesus. That’s what the eucharist is about.

And are we supposed to share the life of Livia? Actually, I’m not sure I want to share the life of Livia.