Posted by The WORD in other words (2009) by Fr John O’Mahony SVD – Christ the King Seminary, Quezon City
Friday 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
Today we hear how the disciples of John and of the Pharisees asked Jesus why his disciples did not fast like they did. Jesus replied that fasting has its place in our lives but rejoicing in the presence of the bridegroom is even more important.
More challenging still is the remark of Jesus about the need to pour new wine into new wineskins. To use old wineskins would be disastrous because the still fermenting wine would simply burst the old, brittle skins and all would be lost.
Here Jesus looks at the mentality that lay behind the question of the disciples of John and the Pharisees. Why were they so inflexible in their ways in spite of all their prayers and sacrifices? Why could they not see the goodness of others even if those others could not follow all the rules as they did? Above all, why could they not see the love and compassion of God that Jesus was revealing to them by his words and deeds? They were being offered new wine but they could not take it because they remained the same old containers.
Let us put this teaching into the context of one of the key events in the Philippine history, the EDSA revolution of 1986. When one remembers the explosion of joy that took place twenty-three years ago after the fall of a dictator and his hated regime, it seems extraordinary that people now have to search for a reason to give thanks. What happened? Or as so many would say: “What went wrong with EDSA?”
Leaving aside for the moment all our partisan views, is it possible to say that EDSA itself was a wonderful new wine offered to us but unfortunately there was very little change in the wineskins? To be honest about it, can we really say we have changed all that much? Have most of us not expected almost a heaven on earth to take place without much effort on our part? Have we not offered the old fragile and brittle wineskins of indifference, selfishness, and corruption as containers for the new wine? And so we have come to the present situation where truth and morality seem to play little or no role anymore in our public life.
For life to change we must also change. In other words we have to become new wineskins for the Lord’s blessings.
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