Choose New Wine Skins

In today's Gospel, Mt 9:14-17, Jesus  tells us that no one "patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth."  The new cloth will shrink and cause a bigger tear in the old cloth.  Also, Jesus says, do not put new wine into old wine skins. As the new wine ferments, the old skins will burst.

Jesus is speaking of making all things new. Lepers, sinners, the sick, the lame, the dead, women, Gentiles will be included, respected, healed, made whole and sent to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel. No one will be excluded.The old way--exploiting the poor, excluding women, refusing to dialogue, passing judgment, compartmentalizing people into class systems with the rich getting richer off the poor, multiplying rules made by humans who seek to control and exert power over others--will be replaced by God's Way, a way of mercy and love, forgiveness and compassion. Peace and justice shall meet. No longer shall industrial pursuits, economic superiority or one gender being chosen over another just for gender sake, no more "a tooth for a tooth," no more power dynamics of lording oneself, one's race, one's nation over another. There is only one Way, the way of the Trinity, where all persons are equal, all striving for a common good: the salvation of the world and the giving everything, even one's life if necessary, to bring wholeness to another, to respect the dignity of the other as a child of God.

The old does not fit any longer. Jesus shows us the way to be obedient to the Father even unto death. Each person must give way to the Divine Will, as Jesus did,  in order to know the fullness of life that Jesus brought to this earth. To truly become the likeness of God, to be transformed into God, to reach our full potential as human beings to  experience our oneness with all that is, with all persons,  and to come to union with God, we need to let go of the "old wine skins." The choice is ours.  May we choose wisely!