MY daily reflection and prayer:
Friday, September 2, 2016
Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
Dear my friends,
Here is the Gospel for us today according to St. Luke 5: 33-39
The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” And he also told them a parable. “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.'”
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
***
IN the Gospel today, Jesus Christ says to the Scribes and Pharisees, “New wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.” He challenges them to have a new paradigm in accepting him. This is the lesson we can take from his word today.
To accept and follow him and his “Good News” truly, we need to be new creatures. We have to leave behind our “old selves” in order to be “new creatures” in Jesus Christ (cfr. Colossians 3:9-10). That is the meaning of Jesus’ word about the “new wine” and “the fresh wineskins”.
In fact, Perpetual Adoration of the Eucharist is like a new wineskin in following Jesus Christ. There we take the new step to leave our old selved behind to lovingly adore Jesus Christ who is always challenging us to renew our lives. Are we ready to be wineskins in following Christ?
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus Christ, in our daily lives, we are easily guilty of rash judgment, even with other people in the Church who do not do things the way we do. Some times we are judging others by the wrong standards as the scribes and Pharisees. Thank you for inviting us to be new creatures in you. Help us to focus more on following you than on judging others. Grant us the grace to live the life of the Church which is built up in the Eucharist with love and enthusiasm. Transform us into a new creature now and forever. Amen.
Kredit foto: Ilustrasi (Ist)
