Today, let us place ourselves in the gospel and listen with the heart of a disciple of John who was “accustomed to fast.” Christ’s words strike with a clear note that he is the long-awaited Messiah and that while he is here, we ought not to fast but be a “wedding guest” and feast with the bridegroom, for there will come a “day when the bridegroom is taken away from them.”

I hear his words as an invitation to receive the gift of his presence—his actual physical presence in the Eucharist, and the spiritual presence of the Holy Spirit. His examples of patching an old cloth and filling an old wine skin are images meant to signify an incapacity for change and avoidance of newness. The old cloak is torn, and the old wineskin bursts.

I think of my “old” self and know that I must be made new again and again by Jesus to receive his grace and love. The old way of anticipating the Messiah represents my former self. That self felt over-confident in preparing for God’s call but this arrogance can be detrimental to recognizing God’s new and immediate call to love the person in my midst and serve those at my right and left.

What about myself is still an old wineskin that would burst if I received the love God is pouring into me right now? What do I avoid in my life that God consistently sends to me?

I believe Jesus wants us to receive new life from his death and resurrection. What in our lives do we perceive but keep at a distance to keep from actually touching our hearts? Jesus’ parable uses simple images of wine and cloth. I think the simple daily encounters with people are the daily tests of our capacity to be filled with new wine—with the Holy Spirit and made new.