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Today’s readings can be found here.
How do real changes in life work? It seems that today’s Gospel seeks to answer this very question. In fact, many times we think we are experiencing decisive changes, but in reality we’re bringing into our life a novelty that does not make us new. We continue to think and act as we always have, and because of this we eventually waste the newness that has visited us.
It’s a bit like men and women who encounter the newness of love: If that newness does not push them to become new in their way of thinking or living, then they will condemn that love to failure. In plain terms, we cannot say we’re committing to love with someone and yet continue to live as bachelors.
In this sense, Jesus’ words are of extreme clarity:
“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.”
The real challenge that the Gospel urges us to live today is this: If it is true that we have encountered something true and new in our lives, then we must be willing to change our mindset, to act differently, to live in a new way. Without this we are already guaranteeing that that newness will not become joy, but only yet another mortification of life.
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Father Luigi Maria Epicoco is a priest of the Aquila Diocese and teaches Philosophy at the Pontifical Lateran University and at the ISSR ‘Fides et ratio,’ Aquila. He dedicates himself to preaching, especially for the formation of laity and religious, giving conferences, retreats and days of recollection. He has authored numerous books and articles. Since 2021, he has served as the Ecclesiastical Assistant in the Vatican Dicastery for Communication and columnist for the Vatican’s daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
