Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel (Luke 5:33–39) speaks of the newness, the joy, and the freshness that Jesus brings. Jesus identifies himself as the bridegroom at a wedding feast, one whose presence forbids fasting. And he uses the parable of the new cloak and the new wine, emphasizing how, in a certain sense, his presence clashes with what came before him. This clash is what makes the scribes and Pharisees who approach him uncomfortable and prompts their questions.
The newness of Jesus is not only something that the scribes and Pharisees of his own time had to experience. If we are genuinely encountering Christ each day, the newness he brings in the Spirit should strike us, too—and at times, it can and should make us uncomfortable. There are “old cloaks” and “old wineskins”—habits, ways of acting, ideas and perceptions—that we will need to set aside for the sake of the new. Some we will be able to keep, as the one who takes from his or storeroom both the old and the new (Matt 13:51–53). But we must be wary lest we look askance at the new and say, "The old is good!"
Today, let us pray that the Spirit may continually open us up to the newness of Christ so that we may receive the new wine of his love in fresh wineskins.