Gospel Reading: Mk 2:18-22
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. 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.”
Reflection NEW WINE IS POURED INTO FRESH WINESKINS
People confront Jesus for not following the practice of fasting that the disciples of John the Baptist and of the Pharisees follow. Using various images, Jesus makes the people realize that his coming signals the beginning of a new era and, paradoxically, the end of fasting and mourning, because salvation is at hand in Jesus, the bridegroom who has come. A new era demands a new behavior: the old and the new cannot mix; they are incompatible.
So also with us: with the coming of Jesus we ought to live a new life since we are no longer in the period of darkness and sin. We cannot live as before since Christ has given us a new status. Not doing so is to refuse his gift.
Have we realized what Jesus has done for us?
Do we try to live according to this exalted status that Jesus has won for us at the price of his blood?
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