Posted by The WORD in other words (2006) by Fr. Alan Meechan, SVD – Occidental Mindoro
Monday 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
Among his many talents Jesus was a first class teacher, able to adjust what he taught to the level and situation of his listeners. Here he uses examples and images that are highly relevant to his people, though they might be unfamiliar to us. However, if we make the effort we can see what Jesus is getting at.
Fasting is a sign of penitence but we rejoice because Jesus is with us. However, we must take care not to make Jesus a poor second in our everyday lives. Some social scientists say that religions like Christianity or Islam find converts easily because these religions allow them to follow the status quo and do not require a radical upheaval in their lives, but this would certainly not appear to be true from what Jesus says here, or also from what we see in the lives of saints past and present.
We should be like new wine, that is, our Christianity should burst forth as the one whom the American poet T. S. Elliot called Christ the Tiger burst forth from the limitations of earthly life. Our lives as Christians should be dynamic, always moving forward, for we are part of God’s marvelous, dynamic process of salvation, which He works out through his Church. We are not just mga taong bahay (costudians) who keep things ticking over while we passively await the return of our master. Christ’s work of bringing the lost sheep back to his fold is dynamic, and we are intimately involved in this process.
Sadly, our Church today is very status quo, at least in the vision of many or her members. It is comfortable to be a member of the Church and sometimes even her most committed members of the Church tend to focus too much on trying to preserve what we’ve got rather then moving forward and reaching out to others.
We have just completed our celebration of Christmas, and enjoyed yesterday the feast of the Santo Niño. Now we move on with our lives, hoping and trusting that Jesus has been born in our hearts and is growing there. If we would only take the time to think what Jesus is giving us, and to try to understand his invitation to us, we would in fact come to live and grow the new wine, the risen, dynamic Christ, in our lives.
