New Wine

January 18, 2010

Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

"Does the LORD so delight in holocausts and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the LORD? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams. For a sin like divination is rebellion, and presumption is the crime of idolatry. Because you have rejected the command of the LORD, he, too, has rejected you as ruler." 1 Samuel 15:22-23

"Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins." Mark 2:19-22

Piety

(Tevia’s opening lines in the script to “Fiddler on the Roof”)

A fiddler on the roof...

Sounds crazy, no?

But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof. Trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous? Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home.

And how do we keep our balance?

That I can tell you in one word!

Tradition!

Study

Remember watching the musical “Fiddler on the Roof?” The Jews in the village of Anatevka had to adjust to the changing political forces that were sweeping Russia at that time. Their story is metaphorically like the story of Jesus and how the people in the villages around the Sea of Galilee were adjusting to his preaching.

Even today, as we reflect on what Jesus says to us, what it means and why it matters, one thing is certain. Jesus changes everything. He attempts to draw us out of our comfort zone and to reestablish a relationship with us based upon friendship. Traditions fly out the window.

Jesus began his ministry by picking up and advancing the message originally preached by John the Baptist. “Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand.” Change not only affects our relationship to God but also God’s relationship to us.

New relationships are being forged. The ways of the past are a foundation upon which Jesus will rebuild but he is not wedded to the traditions alone. Fasting, sacrifices, and burnt offerings are not what Jesus seeks. Instead, he seeks a new relationship.

According to the notes for this passage from the New American Bible: “[T]he bridal metaphor expresses a new relationship of love between God and his people in the person and mission of Jesus to his disciples. It is the inauguration of the new and joyful messianic time of fulfillment and the passing of the old. Any attempt at assimilating the Pharisaic practice of fasting, or of extending the preparatory discipline of John's disciples beyond the arrival of the bridegroom, would be as futile as sewing a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak or pouring new wine into old wineskins with the resulting destruction of both cloth and wine.”

Action

Traditions help people maintain a certain balance or equilibrium in their lives. However, in times of great change, clinging to traditions may keep us from growing in the ways needed.

What is a tradition that you have discarded in order to grow and change? Are there others which also must be put aside?