Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s gospel, Jesus was surrounded by the scribes and Pharisees who expressed their frustration with him and his followers about their disregard for the customary practices of fasting and prayer. The Pharisees did what people often do, they made comparisons. Why didn’t Jesus observe the laws and traditions? Why didn’t his disciples fast or pray enough? However, Jesus urged them to not look outward but to look inward and notice their own intentions and attitudes. He offered them this 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.’” (Luke 5: 36-39)
Jesus does not want the Pharisees to blindly follow a set of customs and practices. Instead, he invites them to let go of the things that prevent their ability to receive God’s good news. Sometimes we get stuck in our daily routines, in going through the motions of everyday life, that we can miss God’s presence. I am reminded of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, which were composed to help one discern the will of God in daily life. St. Ignatius advised that, through prayer, we can open ourselves to the love and the challenge of the gospel, which is made new to us every day.
Jesus’ eyes were fixated outward with a heart that always remained open to God’s will, despite difficulty and struggle. Jesus insisted that the Pharisees and scribes see God making all things new. “For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16). Indeed God brings newness. Every day is a new day, different from the one before it. Each moment is filled with new revelations and graces. Let us pray that we may always open our eyes and heart toward others, continue to grow and learn in new ways, and be aware of God’s daily presence in our lives.
-Jessica Gabrielli