Fresh Wineskins

Fresh Wineskins

January 21, 2013

Memorial of St. Agnes, virgin and martyr

In the days when he was in the Flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.  Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.  Hebrews 5:7-10

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 2:21-22

Piety

Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people,
But it seems the good they die young.
I just looked 'round and he's gone.
Didn't you love the things that they stood for?
Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?
And we'll be free
Some day soon, and it's a-gonna be one day ...

Selected lyrics from "Abraham, Martin and John"

Study

During my very first semester at Belmont Abbey College, my advisors enrolled me and two dozen fresh-people into a course called "Christianity, Culture and Politics," taught by the late Rev. Jerome Dollard, OSB.   Fr. Jerome chose some very eclectic books for the mild minds he was melding.  The Little Red Book by Chairman Mao.  The Autobiography of Malcolm X.  A Harsh And Dreadful Love: Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement by William D. Miller.  Christ and Culture by H. Richard Niebuhr.  And American Civil Religion.

Considering the confluence of dates, January 21 might be the high holy day of this  such a political-theology.  Apologies to St. Agnes. 

Clearly, we approach our faith from the time and place in which we live.  As 21st century Americans, we are refined by our common experiences -- from the assassinations and social and civil rights battles of the 1960s to the economic deficit battles of today, from walking on the Moon to picking up the pieces of the Challenger and the Columbia, from our common baptism as priest-prophet-king-wineskin to the deaths of so many companions on this journey as we are made weak by time and space.

Today as our nation marks the 57th Presidential Inauguration, the readings remind us of our common ignorance, mistakes and weaknesses.  Yet they also remind us that the God we call Abba sent his Son to learn through suffering.  Our blessings and sufferings are the old wineskins of our life. 

Jesus comes as the new wine and calls us to put on the new garment of mercy and compassion.  He wants to take his place within us in this time and place we call home.  He wants to call this time and place His home too.  Yet, this new wine will burst our old wineskin if we do not stretch ourselves beyond the comfort zone of our old perspectives and take on his mission.

The reading from Hebrews reminds us that Jesus was made perfect.  We were not.  But through imitation of him, we can strive for that perfection…a noble goal that we are all called to on this high holy day of American Civil Religion.  Thank you, Fr. Jerome.

Action

These days, we can head over to Total Beverage and pick up a a bottle or case of our favorite Merlot, Chianti or white zinfandel.  We uncork or unscrew it and drink.  If the full bottle is not finished, we take out our low-tech stoppers, pump out the air and save the remaining wine to drink another day.  We think little of drinking wine from a wineskin new or old -- nor do we know much about the time and materials needed to make a wineskin.

You can search the internet for directions to make your own wineskin.  What you will find is that the materials used (goatskin advised) must be prepared properly before it is sewn and then treated after it is made before it is used.

How do today's readings help to prepare us before we are used by Jesus to fulfill His on-going mission before we are filled with new wine?  How are you being "treated" by the Good News to be made perfect?