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. (Mk 2:21-22)
It seems to be a part of human nature that we abhor anything old.
Everything has to be “new and improved”.
We do not like to have old things around the house. We get rid of old cars, old computers, old toasters — old everything.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking about new and old and about how each needs to be cared for.
If you put new wine into skins that have already been conditioned and changed once before, you are bound to lose both the skins as well as the wine.
God fills us with new ideas, with new insights, with new grace each day of our lives. We are called to change in order to accommodate those gifts. We are called to produce a “wine” that will be beneficial to others.
However, that does not mean that we have to sweep away the old.
We are called to a deeper appreciation of what we have while, at the same time, incorporating the new.
We had a “ministries fair” yesterday. We called it our Re-Gifting Expo.
At that expo, many people signed up to participate in our ongoing ministries.
However, there were several people who signed up to begin a brand new ministry.
Appreciating what we have and using what we have been given, we are called to look ahead.
FAITH ACTION: Celebrate one of the gifts that God has given to you. At the same time, decide if there is something new that you can do in the faith.