Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the Church
When I was in elementary school, I learned a silly song about getting to heaven: "You can't get to heaven on roller skates, you'll roll right by those pearly gates..." was one of the verses. But another of the verses is not quite so silly: "You can't get to heaven in dirty jeans 'cause the Lord don't have no washing machine." Dirty jeans are yesterday's or last week's article of clothing; you can't expect to take that old garment with you when you begin your new life.
The contrast between old and new life is the theme of today's scriptures. Today's gospel (Luke 5:33-39) opens with people suggesting that Jesus and his disciples are clearly not quite as holy as others are. Jesus and his disciples don't fast like other people fast, and they certainly don't fast like the scriptures suggest. But Jesus is quick to find holes in their logic: just because someone doesn't seem to be fasting doesn't say anything about the way they live the rest of their lives. More pointedly, Jesus is admonishing people to live in response to what God lays before us NOW, rather than focusing on what has been or what will be. The bridegroom is having the wedding feast NOW, says Jesus. Now is when we are experiencing whatever new thing God might be putting before us. There is no point in fasting because weddings are for feasting. But just because that is the appropriate action for now does not mean that feasting will always be the appropriate action.
Jesus continues in this passage to speak of the old and the new in his discussion of wineskins. In those days, wineskins were often the cured whole hide (minus tail and legs) of a goat, sealed shut. As the grape juice fermented (which it did rapidly in that warm climate) the container it was in would expand with the increase of gases so that when the fermentation process was completed a few months later, the skins would be bloated and expanded. There was no way they could be reused for they couldn't stretch anymore. So Jesus makes his point about new wine: you have to find a new container for new wine. You can't focus on the old one even if it worked in the past.
Paul's letter (1 Corinthians 4:1-5) shows a similar concern with what is happening now, rather than what happened in the past. The strong theme that runs through his letter is that he is unconcerned with what MIGHT happen, but prefers to trust in God and that at the appropriate time, God will judge with righteousness and fairness.
Today is the memorial of Gregory the Great, a saint who took Jesus' and Paul's words to heart. He lived in a time of immense upheaval, when the Roman empire was crumbling to bits and there was no longer a political structure holding anything like a "civilization" together. Laws were very loosely followed; people were organized in loose bands rather than by a government like we would know. Gregory responded by doing a new thing, in response to his current situation: he sent Benedictine monks to all of dismantled Europe, which sparked something of a revival of the church throughout the area. Benedictine monasticism would be one of the underpinnings of civilization after the fall of Rome, for the monks would hold the libraries, the schools, the hospitals and the hotels of the age.
We too are called to examine what God is placing in our lives for today, NOW, and not what was or what might be. Today let us respond with love and humility to what God puts in our path right now. Like Gregory, our faithful responses to now may bear much more fruit than we can possibly imagine. But we cannot have the flexibility and possibility of this new life without leaving behind the old.
- Jana M. Bennett