Word to the Wise
Friday, September 3, 2021 - Friday in the 22th Week in Ordinary Time
[Col 1:15-20 and Luke 5:33-39]"No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'" [Luke]
SEPTEMBER 3 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT, pope and doctor of the church.
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The evangelist Luke combines a number of images in today's gospel passage to make a single point. There are the images of the wedding banquet (aptly used at a banquet in Levi's - Matthew's - home), cloth repair, wineskins and old v. new wine. The single point is that Jesus is introducing a new age, something completely different. The whole psychology of human reaction to change haunts Jesus' ministry. The resistance to his teaching would continue and still continues in our own time. Real conversion and repentance mean change. Winston Churchill is often quoted in this regard: "To improve is to change. To become perfect is to have changed often."
Those of us who have lived through the "changes" in the church from the beginning of the Second Vatican Council to the present day can appreciate how unsettling this process can be. The subject has been one of intense debate about reform and continuity. I can remember, as a Dominican novice, the director of liturgy at the novitiate describing what the new rite of the Mass would be like. It was a shock! But once I experienced what the council fathers were getting at in the changes, I realized their purpose and have lived happily with them. Others have not. The resistance to Jesus' attitude about certain Jewish traditions would harden into a lethal action. In our time, it results in various groups seeking to "restore" what cannot be restored and so breaking away from the church. History can be a challenging teacher and the church is constantly trying to improve. The challenge to us all is to examine our own attitudes and grow. AMEN