Don’t Be An Old Bottle

There is a time to fast and there is a time to feast

Amos 9:11-15 
Matthew 9:14-17

In drawing attention to the need for new wineskins, what is Jesus telling us about our life with Him?

In Jesus’ time, they did not put wine in glass bottles like we do. A wineskin was made of the complete hide of an animal, such as a goat or a sheep. New wine was put into new wineskins, because as it ferments, it generates carbon dioxide gas that exerts pressure on the skin bottles. New skins expand; old, inflexible ones burst under the pressure. Everyone knew that new wine needed to go into new wineskins.

I believe Jesus is calling us to wholeheartedness and also a willingness to change, to be flexible. He is describing the process of conversion. Half-hearted pouring of our new commitment into the old containers of our lives will not do; they are just not flexible enough to meet the challenges for growth and change. Discipleship with Jesus require wholehearted commitment and willingness to change our lives.

The first reading of today we here of overflowing abundance will after the time of grief. Rebuilding after the time of desolation. Amos had spoken of the punishment of God’s judgment and now he talks about restoration on the day of the Lord. Justice and righteousness will overflow. This will mark God’s abundant peace on earth. God has promised us abundant grace but the challenge for us is we approach God’s grace as if it is not enough. We approach God as if he is limited like we are. We then begin to acquire as much as possible. We become fearful that it will never be enough; forgetting that God can do all hinge for us. God wants us to share in the abundance of grace which is inexhaustible.

Pope Francis is calling Catholics to this conversion.In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis identifies our current ecological crisis as a “summons to profound interior conversion.” What everyone needs, he writes, is an “‘ecological conversion,’ whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them.”It will include every aspect of our lives, especially our understanding of, and our expressions of our intertwined relations with God, self, others, and Earth.

Credit:
This article is written by Rev Fr. Joseph Osho OSJ. Please visit his personal blog @ https://www.blogger.com/profile/10377666931103644634
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