HOMILY WEEK 02 01 – Year I
New Wine of Eternal Life; Fresh Skins of Humble Obedience:
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
(Heb 5:1-10; Ps 110; Mk 2:18-22)
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The superior of a religious community of women was on her death bed. One of the sisters, whose father found drinking a little brandy each night helped him sleep, started putting a little brandy into the milk they were giving her. After a week of this, the mother superior mentioned to the sisters gathered around her, “Sisters, after I am gone, whatever you do, don’t get rid of that cow!”
Would you like to experience the eternal salvation mentioned in the first reading? According to the author of Hebrews, all we need do for that to happen is to obey Jesus.
The liturgists chose the readings well for today, as there is a double connection between the first reading and the gospel. In the gospel, Jesus speaks of new wine, whereas the author of Hebrews speaks of eternal salvation. In essence, what both want for us is the new wine of eternal salvation. In the gospel, Jesus mentions the need for fresh wineskins capable of holding that new wine, whereas the author of Hebrews mentions the need to obey Jesus Christ. Putting that all together, we are to be new wine skins of obedience to Jesus destined to be filled with the new wine of eternal salvation.
But what is this new wine of eternal salvation, meant to be the goal of our lives according to both Hebrews and Mark’s gospel? I think the one who put it most succinctly is St. Paul in one line of his letter to the Romans: “The kingdom of God is not about eating or drinking, but the peace, joy and justice of the Holy Spirit” (14:17). So, for St. Paul, that new wine of eternal salvation is actually living within and experiencing the kingdom of God through peace, joy and justice in the Holy Spirit.
Peace is not a passing emotion but a gift of the Holy Spirit we can claim as followers of Jesus. Joy is also not just a fleeting feeling, but a gift of the Holy Spirit we can claim as followers of Jesus, the only one who can fill us with those gifts.
And I believe justice is: a right relationship with God (having received God’s forgiveness and healing so that we are reconciled with God); a right relationship with everyone else in our lives (we have forgiven all who have hurt us and apologized to anyone we may have hurt); a right relationship with ourselves (we have accepted ourselves as we are, have forgiven ourselves our past mistakes, and have a strong sense of self-worth and self-esteem) and finally, a right relationship with all of God’s creation (we are doing all we can to care for the ecology and mother earth). All of this results in us enjoying the new wine of eternal salvation.
Jesus in the gospel warns us we have to be new wineskins, however, to be able to hold and contain that powerful new wine of eternal salvation. The author of Hebrews comes to our rescue, suggesting obeying Jesus, doing his will, is the best way to be those new wineskins. But what does it mean – to obey Jesus? The simplest answer would be to do his will (like the WWJD bracelet some wear, standing for “What would Jesus do?”). But what would Jesus have us do so that we can be new wineskins of obedience to him?
May I suggest three clear avenues? Live the Beatitudes, keep the Commandments, and follow Jesus into the Paschal Mystery.
The Beatitudes are “eight ways of being” that summarize the teaching of Jesus and serve as a Magna Carta for living in the kingdom of God. In fact, two of them, the first and the last (“poor in spirit” and “persecuted”) assure those who are living them that “theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. All of them, really, describe someone who is already experiencing in this life, the new wine of eternal salvation.
The second avenue into this new wine of eternal salvation is to keep the commandments Jesus taught us. For the sake of expediency and simplicity, I like to summarize them as follows: Love God with our whole being through prayer, praise and worship; love others by caring for them and sharing life with them; love ourselves by forgiving and accepting ourselves as we are; love others as Jesus has loved us, by being willing to make selfless sacrifices for their sake; and finally, love our enemies by forgiving them from the heart. Anyone truly keeping these commandments is certainly a new wineskin of obedience to Jesus leading them to experience the new wine of eternal salvation.
The letter to the Hebrews describes Jesus as the great high priest who was made perfect through suffering, and thus became the source of eternal salvation. The third avenue of being a new wineskin is to take up our cross as Jesus invites us to do, and follow him into the Paschal Mystery of radical discipleship and redemptive suffering. Radical discipleship is to be able to accept suffering and inconvenience in our lives without bitterness or resentment. When we do this, we are just like Jesus on the cross (“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do”), and our suffering becomes redemptive and full of purpose, as it is connected with that of Jesus and helps build up the kingdom of God here on earth.
This witness is needed more than ever today, as our society has lost all and any sense of purpose and meaning in suffering, seeing it as meaningless and to be avoided at all cost – leading especially to the push for euthanasia of the elderly, and addiction of all kinds as people strive to avoid the legitimate suffering they do not understand.
Today also begins the week of prayer for Christian Unity. As an Oblate I was reminded of what our founder, St. Eugene de Mazenod, wrote about this in his Lenten Pastoral Letter of 1860: “Jesus Christ had to associate humankind to himself mystically so as to form one whole with it while allowing the personality proper to each person united to him to subsist. And just as there is only one person in Jesus Christ, all Christians should form with him but one body, whose head he is and whose members they are.”
Our 1982 Oblate Constitutions reflect the more explicit ecumenical concern characteristic of the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council based on John 17:21 – “Our efforts will be characterized by a genuine desire for unity with all who consider themselves followers of Jesus, so that, according to his prayer, all may believe that the Father has sent him” (C. 6)
The Eucharist is a participation in this new wine, a taste of eternal life and salvation, that both prepares us for it, and transforms us into the new wine skins capable of holding it.
So, may our celebration strengthen our common faith in Jesus Christ, transform us into new wineskins of obedience to Christ enjoying the new wine of eternal salvation, and empower us to work for Christian unity.
