Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070624.cfm

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The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.
No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,
for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
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.”
Matthew 9:14-17

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Jesus tells the Baptist’s questioning disciples that his is a new world. The confines of the Old Law will no longer contain the new grace of the Paschal Mystery and the Gospel.

Old wineskins become brittle with overuse. The analogy is applicable to many realities in life. Often, as time passes, we pay less attention to some important things or people. We may take them for granted, over-depend on their effectiveness, fail to effectively communicate, surrender to that famous “contemptuous familiarity”.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Immobilizing constriction can affect our faith too. Jesus encourages us to keep faith “fresh” by prayer, communal reflection, and practice. Neither our personal nor our communal faith is static. Grace offers us the invitation to become ever deeper in our understanding of God. The current Synodal process within the Catholic Church is a wonderful example of openness to fresh, new “wineskins” for our faith.

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Poetry: Wine Skins – Evelyn McNulta
This is a simple poem with devout sentiments, but what struck me most about it is where I found it – in a public newspaper, The Atlanta Chronicle.
The poem reminded me of a poet some of my older local readers might remember – James Metcalfe. His “Daily Poem Portraits” were published in The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin during the 1950s. They were a great favorite of my Dad.

My hands are uplifted in homage to Him,
They're not empty.
They hold loosely those sins that cause separation
of His spirit and mine.

Dear Father, take them and fill me with new wine.
The wine skins of my life are brittle and hard,
They can't hold your new wine because they are marred.
Please replace them with supple new skins

That can be distended again and again.
These wine skins are vessels that hold Your concerns,
Help me remember the things I have learned.
The more I am emptied of selfish desires,

The more You can cleanse me with Your cleansing fire.
You'll burn away malice, ill-temper and greed,
And open my eyes to Your people in need.
You'll put unforgiveness also in Your fire,

And fill my heart with the burning desire
To worship, to honor, to praise Your dear name.
Your new wine remakes hearts, they're never the same.
Take mine, Holy Father, change what you will,

I'm nothing without You, I need You to fill
Each crevice, and corner and nook of my heart.
There's much to be changed, I'm asking, please start.

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Music: Fall Afresh on Me