Today’s Gospel talks about the old and the new. When Jesus was asked why his disciples didn’t fast like John’s and some of the religious leaders of the synagogue, Jesus said that they would fast after his death even though that was still in the future.
When we think about fasting, there are several examples that come to mind. We fast for an hour before mass. We fast on Fridays in Lent. We abstain or fast from meat on Fridays in Lent and some people do that year-round. Jesus used a parable to explain the difference between the old way and the new way. He talked about things that everyone listening knew were absurd.
Jesus talked about sewing new cloth into an old garment. He talked about putting new wine in old wineskins. Everyone knew that you didn’t do that because of what would happen.
The same is true for our lives. When we think about our lives, there were probably many times when life was going along quite happily when suddenly everything changed. The old and comfortable became new and different. Sometimes it becomes difficult or even disastrous, a lot like the new cloth in an old garment that tears it when it shrinks or new wine in old wineskins that will burst as the wine ages.
We sometimes ask ourselves “Why?” or resent what happened in the past. It’s easy to carry frustration and hatred toward someone who hurt us, even though it may have been years or decades ago. The old hurt is still tearing our hearts apart after all this time.
The solution is for us to spend some time in prayer. Not that God will necessarily change that person but pray that God will bless them and help me to become more loving and kinder in my heart. I know that this is difficult for me at times. That’s the hard part for most of us; striving to be the Christian that God calls each of us to be regardless of how we feel.
Then, we must be open to God’s healing touch. Praying that God will take care of everything is the easy part. Opening our hearts for God to ease the pain is more difficult to do. Sometimes it’s easier to hold onto the pain and resentment than it is let God work in our lives. The result is that our hearts remain broken, and our suffering continues.
We decide to fast for a couple of meals and instead spend that time in prayer to show God that we are serious in our request to help us change. Fasting is not something we do very often today. The Apostles and the Saints spent a lot of time fasting and praying for God’s mercy and direction which is one of the reasons they were so effective in spreading the Gospel.
At the end of the Gospel, Jesus said, “Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
Through prayer and fasting, we ask God to heal us and make us whole again. We must also open our hearts to God’s healing, so we are not ruined like the old wineskins by our anger and resentment.
May our hearts be like new wineskins ready to receive God’s healing power into our hearts. Then God’s love and mercy will flow to us to draw us closer to him and flow to those around us.
