Under the form of bread God becomes for us even the food of life. Wine is drink. To be exact, it is more than drink, more than a liquid like water that merely quenches thirst. The purpose of wine is not only to quench thirst, but also to give pleasure and satisfaction and exhilaration. Literally, how intoxicating, though not in the sense of drinking to excess.
Wine possesses a sparkle, a perfume, a vigour, that expands and clears the imagination.
Under the form of wine Christ gives us his divine blood. It is no plain and sober draught. It was bought at a great price, at a divinely excessive price. Sanguis Christi, inebria me, prays Saint Ignatius, that Knight of the Burning Heart. In one of the antiphons for the feast of Saint Agnes, the blood of Christ is called a mystery of ineffable beauty.