Purgatory Press

 
What for did He plant the vineyard, 
what for did He prune the vines? 
What for did He watch the harvest,  
if not to make His wine?  [i]
 
Why use a short, sharp sickle,
to cut with sudden shock,
why trample in His winepress
the cluster on the stalk ?  [ii]
 
Fruits – hundreds, sixties, thirties,  [iii]  
must separate from skins
and peel away the refuse
to tear away all sins   [iv]                  
 
Press the juice out freely 
and leave the rotting Must  [v]
yielding precious nectar 
that lasts beyond the Last 

(2020s)

  [i]   Luke    3:16-18  –
 “John answered them all, saying, ‘I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming .... He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’  ”

[ii]   Revelation 14:18-19  –
 “Then another angel came from the altar, who was in charge of the fire, and cried out in a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, ‘Use your sharp sickle and cut the clusters from the earth’s vines, for its grapes are ripe.’  So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and cut the earth’s vintage. He threw it into the great wine press of God’s fury.”

[iii]   Matthew 13:8, Jesus telling the “Parable of the Seed and the Sower”  –  “But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

[iv]   “Purgatory”.   Wikipedia.org.  {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory}  (accessed December 1, 2021). –
 “Purgatory is, according to the belief of some Christians, an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory is the final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.”   

[v]   “Must”.  Wikipedia.org.   {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Must} (accessed December 1, 2021). 
 “Must (from the Latin  vinum mustum, "young wine") is freshly crushed fruit juice (usually grape juice) that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit…. Making must is the first step in winemaking.”