By Colleen O’Sullivan
Christ
Jesus is the image of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:15a)
And
(Jesus) also told them a parable. “No
one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece
from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins,
and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh
wineskins. And no one who has been
drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” (Luke 5:36-39)
Piety
Open my heart, Lord
Help me to love like You
Open my heart Lord
Help me to love.
(from Open My Eyes, Lord,
Jesse Manibusan)
Study
You’d think
the Pharisees would get tired of trying to entrap Jesus, but they’re like
Energizer Bunnies on that score. They’re
back again, this time asking Jesus why his disciples don’t fast like they
do. Why don’t they follow the law like
we do? Jesus talks about the bridegroom
being with the disciples and asks who would fast while a celebration was
underway. There will be plenty of time
for that later. I doubt the Pharisees
had the slightest inkling what Jesus was talking about.
Basically,
Jesus is doing something new. And, by
way of two parables, he makes the point that the old and the new don’t go
together very well. Take a brand new
piece of cloth and use it as a patch on an old garment and see what
happens. First of all, it’s not going to
be pleasing to the eye. Second, if
you’ve ever sewn anything from scratch, you know that you have to preshrink
some materials and straighten them before you do anything else. Leave those steps out and whatever you’re creating
will shrink and not hang straight. So,
your new patch may shrink and, as it does, pull on the old cloth till it tears. In a similar fashion, Jesus outlines why new
wine and old goatskins don’t go together.
The old skins are dry. As the
wine ages and ferments, it expands, but the skins don’t, and you end up losing
both a goatskin and some wine.
Jesus
finishes his story about wine by saying that most people prefer the old to the
new.
And that
takes us right back to the Pharisees.
It’s a whole lot easier to continue the old way of checking off all the
prescribed rituals than to open one’s heart to all that Jesus says and
does. But maybe Jesus is speaking to you
and me as well, because sometimes we practice our faith as though ticking off
items like going to Mass, taking the kids to CCD, etc., on a checklist is all
we need to do. The truth is Jesus wants every
bit of us, especially our hearts. He
hopes we will be open to new things, will be willing to have our hearts
stretched, and will be gradually conformed to his image.
We were
created in God’s image, and Paul says that “Christ Jesus is the image of the
invisible God.” Growing into that image
is what our faith journey is all about, the lifelong process of becoming
friends with Jesus; acknowledging that God is Lord of all, no matter how often
we may act to the contrary; living for others; being generous, kind, merciful
and forgiving; being willing to step out of our comfort zones to help the poor
and any other of the modern-day “lepers” who exist on the fringes of society.
Action
Where in
your life do you feel this gradual conforming to the image of Christ taking
place? Do you sense God seeking to
stretch you in any way, maybe calling you to try something new? Do you find yourself wanting to cling to the
old sometimes? Talk it all over with
Jesus in prayer.
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