New Wine

"Do not put new wine into old wineskins." Matthew 9:17

If you put new, unfermented wine into new wineskins, what happens? Jesus tells us that the skins will burst, and the wine spills out. I've never seen wineskins, but I've sewn patches on holes in old clothes. That doesn't work well either! 

I quote from "The Anawim Way Liturgical Meditations"- "The image of new wine being poured into new wineskins is an image of ourselves. We have become new wineskins at baptism. The new wine being poured into us is the very life of Jesus Christ, given by the power of His Spirit." 

What a beautiful picture of the fullness of life God wants to gift us with! May we always be willing to learn new things at the Master's feet. Good wine becomes better with age, so too are we transformed as the Holy Spirit acts in us. 

In Father Tito Caluag’s mass this morning, he said that in a genuine encounter with Christ, the fruit will always be the grace of conversion, a total giving of self, and new eyes of faith. He gives the examples of saints like St. Francis of Assisi and St. Ignatius of Loyola who both allowed God’s grace to change them and set them on a path to conversion. We can only live holy lives if we love Christ deeply, and have a relationship with Him. 

Lord, may we always welcome Your work in our life!