Word to the Wise
Saturday, July 5, 2014 - Saturday in the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
[Amos 9:11-15 and Matt 9:14-17]Yes, days are coming says the Lord, whe the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the vintager, him who sows the seed; the juice of grapes shall drip down the mountains, and the hills shall run with it....[Amos]
Amos is not ALL gloom and doom! He does promise a better day to the Northern Kingdom of Israel if they repent and restore justice. It is that "better day" that accounts for Jesus' reply to the disciples of John the Baptist about why Jesus' disciples do not fast. The Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus as the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law and the inaugurator of a new age. This should be a time of celebration and not a time of mourning. He points out that there will be a time of mourning, indeed, when "the bridegroom is taken away from them."
Although I do not want to read into the gospel what was never there, I cannot help but find inspiration in the contrast that Jesus draws. That contrast is between a faith that is grim and over-ascetical and one that celebrates the "joy of the gospel" as Pope Francis has put it. There is, indeed, a time for fasting and penitence in our liturgical year. We call it "Lent." But we do not have to make Lent a 365 day a year practice. The "New Evangelization" will attract no one by grim and sin-obsessed preaching and observances! We can enjoy the "old wine" without keeping the containers! The "new wine" invites us to a fresh new look at what we believe and how to share it! AMEN