September 3, 2021
(St. Gregory the Great (1st), Pope)
Jesus 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.” Lk_5:33-39
Ever notice, beloved, that every once in a while, these parables of Jesus make total sense. We can clearly understand the logic of what Jesus is saying and maybe even understand how it relates to His situation with the Pharisees and the masses. Now today, we might not be real familiar with wineskins, but we DO know our clothes.
And I think that most people in our (older) generations are also familiar with, not just throwing out those old clothes, but passing them on to our younger siblings and even patching some holes. And it wasn’t necessarily – that we loved those old clothes so much. But we just couldn’t afford to constantly re-clothe everyone with new stuff.
So we learned that you had to wash that new patch to shrink it down before sewing it on
to those old jeans. Funny, today, people pay big money to buy old jeans with holes already in them. And, you know what, as we age, outside of clothes, we really DO tend to prefer what we’re familiar with – all those old things and habits.
Some people just can’t let go of the old Latin Mass; the 40’s or 60’s or 80’s music; or even political parties that have long since totally changed their platforms. This is what Jesus was dealing with in the Pharisees. They were quick to judge anything that did not fit – exactly – into their religious box. And when something new came up, like Jesus promoting Love of neighbor, OVER strict adherence to the Law of Moses, those Pharisees were just torn apart, like those newly patched, old jeans, or exploded like the old wineskins filled with newly formenting wine.
You see, Jesus was introducing a whole New Covenant. And it didn’t mean that the Old Covenant was obsolete. Those Ten-Commandments were, and are, still important steps for growing in our moral integrity. But they were given, they were presented, to a people who were still children in their maturity.
After 1300-years from the time of Moses, Jesus would have expected them to have grown from needing a “good” or “bad” description of every little thing they did, into knowing God’s Truth in their hearts. And yet, the Pharisees simply expanded those 10-Laws into 600, and hung them like balls and chains around the necks of the people. And the masses, like the Israelite slaves, had to comply, at the threat of excommunication if they didn’t.
Jesus told us that Life should not be just a checklist of do’s and don’ts. There is another dimension to Life, and it’s called JOY. If we can simply plant Love in our hearts, then we’ll find that the fruit of its growth will be Love in return. And that Love will spread like wildfire to the point where we don’t even need to think about the ten-commandments any more, because the Love will cover them all, and even exceed them.
Unfortunately, even 2000-years later, there are so many people enslaved to the Old ways of Competition, and Hatred, and Selfishness, and Revenge, that Jesus’ New Covenant of Love, Forgiveness and Salvation are often still a distant dream away for many.
And yet, WE all know, that Jesus IS our Hope. And now it’s up to us to spread that Hope, and that Joy, and His Love, despite the obstacles.
And LOVE will be victorious,
just as Jesus has always been!
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Whispers to the Wind 