Word to the Wise
Saturday, July 5, 2008 - Saturday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time
[Amos and ]People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved
The older I get, the more challenging this image of the wine and wineskins becomes for me. It seems more and more that the only time new wine gets into this old wineskin is when I uncork a bottle and have a glass! The profusion of new realities such as Facebook and YouTube, etc. etc. leaves me bewildered. I am more and more dependent on my faithful webmaster, a former student parishioner, to tell me if something new is compatible with my old wineskin! Jesus' aims the parable at the "old order" who were resisting his teaching. How does an old wineskin become a new one? The image is even more challenging in regard to religious life where we are seeing large numbers of novices entering communities that appear to be "old wineskins" but the question arises if these communities (old wineskins) are actually holding these enthusiastic new recruits (new wine) for life. A recent article in the Jesuit national magazine, AMERICA, (Religious Life in the Age of Facebook - Where have all the young people gone?) suggests that the current wineskins may have to be made of some other material to hold the "Millenial" generation. Will religious life become a kind of Peace Corps or TeachAmerica commitment - something important but not life-long - because the current generation simply does not see lifetime commitment as a possibility? Whatever transformation may be required for my old wineskin, I don't want to lose that old wine just because the "Beaujolais Nouvelle" is hot off the wine press! The church is like a big wine rack that must accomodate many different bottles (skins) of different vintages. The challenge Jesus makes is to be open to the new vintage. After all, he made some very good wine at the wedding feast at Cana! Now THAT's a vintage I would definitely love to try in the literal as well as theological sense! AMEN
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