My Thoughts on Today's Bible Readings

What does the parable in today's gospel reading mean? In Jesus' times, wine was stored in wine skins, not bottles. New wine couldn't be stored in old wine skins as since these wines were still fermenting, they gave off gases which exerted pressure on their containers. New wine skins were elastic enough to take the pressure, but old wine skins burst easily under the pressure as they were no longer elastic. If Jesus' teaching were the new wine, then new 'containers' would have to be fashioned to express these teachings. Either that or the old 'containers' would need to be made more 'elastic' (read flexible) to contain these teachings. Take for instance what the Pharisees said to Jesus about His disciples' observances of fasting. They saw fasting regularly as good and feasting regularly as bad when it came to the Jewish religious life. Jesus however gave a new interpretation: there's a time for fasting and a time for feasting. It is good to fast in order to grow spiritually, but it is equally good to feast with one's friends as a sign of love and fellowship not only with those friends but also with God from whose bounty those food came. In other words, do everything with love.
This doesn't mean that we are to reject the old in place of the new, or that the new laws of Christ replaces the old laws of Moses. Rather we should say that there is a right place for the old as well as the new. The Lord gives us wisdom so we can make the best use of both the old and the new. He doesn't want us to hold rigidly to the past and to be resistant to the new work of his Holy Spirit in our lives. He wants our minds and hearts to be like the new wine skins — open and ready to receive both the old and the new.

Bible Readings for Today (5 Sep, Fri - 22nd Week)

1 Corinthians 4: 1-5
One should think about us this way – as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now what is sought in stewards is that one be found faithful. So for me, it is a minor matter that I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not acquitted because of this. The one who judges me is the Lord. So then, do not judge anything before the time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the motives of hearts. Then each will receive recognition from God.

Luke 5: 33-39
Then the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “John’s disciples frequently fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours continue to eat and drink.” So Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But those days are coming, and when the bridegroom is taken from them, at that time they will fast.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old garment. If he does, he will have torn the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine must be poured into new wineskins. No one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’”

My Thoughts on the Bible Readings of the Day

St. Paul wrote (in today's reading from Corinthians) that the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God. What does this mean? It means that ultimately all the sciences and the philosophies and the knowledge we accumulate in this world doesn't matter if such does not come from God. For God is the creator of the world; how can one know of the world more than Him? Besides, we humans are easily fooled into rationalizing anything from the greatest good to the worst evil imaginable. Think about it. Even Solomon, the wisest man in the Bible, ended up sinning against God. And this is the man whose wisdom came from God! IMHO Solomon's wisdom caused him to depend on it more than on God. He stopped asking God what His will is and tried to figure it out on his own. He ended up depressed and worshipping the gods of his many wives. So shall we if we don't depend on God. How do we do so? By obeying His laws (God will not ask us to do something against His ten commandments and laws of love). By spending time listening to God. By going to Mass often. By praying to Him regularly.