September 2, 2022
St. Paul wrote, Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God. 1_Cor_4:1-5
The Psalmist wrote, The salvation of the just is from the LORD; he is their refuge in time of distress. And the LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him. Ps_37
Jesus said, “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.’” Lk_5:33-39
Today’s Scriptures are actually a beautiful picture of hope . . . The hope of eternal Salvation, the hope of daily Salvation, or refuge, and through a simple lesson, our hope for the Salvation of the world. It’s one of those word pictures that we’d just love to hang on our walls as a constant reminder of God’s love for us and our responsibilities.
And yet, within those three readings today, there appears to be at least two or three main topics. But we’ll very shortly see, how they really are – all One.
In our Gospel, for example, we find the Pharisees, as usual, griping about, yet another thing that Jesus and His disciples were doing wrong. Today’s protest had to do with Fasting. And, the Pharisee’s defense of the issue was, what we’d call, Comparative. “Look, we’re the leaders here, and WE fast.” “And you say that John the Baptist is supposed to be on your side, and yet HE fasts too.” “So why don’t you and your disciples fast as well?”
You see, this was another one of those thousand-year old, Mosaic Laws that the Pharisees took to extremes. And they used it as another flogging whip to beat the, already miserable, people into further submission. Of course, we know that, if the Pharisees were good at anything, it was observing and judging others. Not that we’re being judgmental of them.
But remember, at one point, Jesus chastised them, when He quoted the Prophet Hosea as saying, “Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice” Mt 9:13 In essence, He already answered their complaint, and it wasn’t about fasting, but about being non-judgmental, about offering mercy instead of sacrifice
So, today’s response by Jesus was a little different, as He shared His Parables of the Old and the New: – The Old Cloak and the New Patch, The Old Wineskins and the New Wine. You see, some things are just not compatible with one another, and don’t even make any common sense together. And yet, the griping continues and it will always continue! . . .
“What happened to the ‘Good old days,’ when the sky was blue, and the gas was a dime and people understood morality, we’d ask? And the millennials would respond to us, saying, “Oh, you mean like: – ‘9-11’, 21-years ago, – or the peaceful 60’s, – or the warless 40’s, – and the prosperous 30’s, – or the happy Crusades, – and the healthy plagues, – and the joyful Roman persecutions? THOSE Good old days?”
You see, there’s always the Worse, and there’s always the Better, the Us and the Them, the Dark and the Light, the Good and the Bad.
And if there’s nothing other than this, that we learn today, it’s that WE are NOT supposed to be the Judge, the Jury, and the Hangman. We are not the Pharisee with the whip, nor the hermit with his head in the sand. Our call is not to judge, but to discern. And there’s a huge difference between the two.
The Judge views everything from a relativistic Bias, his bias, from total Control, and with an ultimate end of Condemnation and Punishment. And his reward is Power, Self-centeredness, and a very heavy Conscience – or else Insanity.
Whereas, to the contrary, the Discerner views everything from the Moral and Absolute Truth of God, not for control, but for Understanding, and not with an ultimate goal of Punishment – for he knows that God is the only true source of punishment or redemption. But the Discerner moves from Understanding to Mercy, to a healthy conversion of himself or others.
And when conversion of others is not obvious, she knows by her Prayers, that it all rests in the hands of God. And her reward, rather than Guilt, is total Freedom, knowing that her discernment makes her a better person, both in the eyes of God and in the world. And therein lies our HOPE! The beautiful and freeing Hope of Jesus!
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Whispers to the Wind 