New
Wineskins for Lent
Fr.
George Smiga
February
27, 2006
Mark
1:12-15
If
you're fifteen years old and you are still thinking as you
did when you were eight, there is a problem. But if you are
thirty years old and you are still thinking as you did when
you were fifteen, or sixty years old and still thinking as
you did when you were thirty, there is still a problem. Over
the course of our lifetime, our thinking should progress.
As we mature we are called to appreciate the value and purpose
of life more deeply. It is very important not to equate this
growth in understanding with the mere accumulation of information.
Real growth and understanding happens when we find new patterns
in which we can use the information we already possess and
reorganize it, reshape it into fresh thoughts and deeper ways
of thinking.
Allow
me to use an example from the computer world. Real growth
in understanding is more than down loading more data. It is
closer to installing a new program, a new program that allows
us to use all the data we have in fresh and innovative ways.
When applied to our lives, this new installation can be called
a “break through moment,” because once it occurs, everything
that follows after it will be influenced and changed.
YoYo
Ma, the great classic cellist, described a “breakthrough moment”
in his life in a recent interview. Ma said that when he was
a student in Harvard's Music School , he was honored to be
invited to play a concert at the 92 nd Street Y in Manhattan
, which is one of the most preeminent venues for classical
music in New York City . He said that he practiced a year
to prepare for that concert. His goal was clear. He wanted
to give a perfect, flawless performance. On the night of the
concert his adrenalin was running, he was in perfect sync
with his accompanist, and every thing was going very well.
But about half way through the lengthy concert, he realized
two things at the same moment. The first was that he was achieving
his goal. He was playing a flawless concert. The second was
that he was totally bored! He said, “I could have stood up
from that chair and walked away without feeling that I was
interrupting anything of any importance.” It was, for him,
a “breakthrough moment,” because he saw in that moment that
a great performance was not primarily about perfection. Of
course, you needed to have an approach to the music and you
needed to execute that music well. But a great performance
was also about having something to say. To use Ma's own words:
“I saw in that moment that a performance was not about perfection,
but about expression.” That moment changed his life forever
and every thing that followed after it. To this day, Yo Yo
Ma has the same technical ability that he had as a student
at Harvard, but now he uses all of that ability towards a
new goal. The goal is to communicate something he believes
to his listeners. YoYo Mau points to that moment as the breakthrough
that set him on the course to be one of the most influential
musicians of his generation.
Jesus,
in today's gospel, is emphasizing the importance of such “breakthrough
moments.” Jesus understands that there are times when we can
no longer put wine into old wine skins. There are times when
new ideas will only be destroyed if we put them back into
old categories. What we need is a new container, a new system,
a new vision. When we find it, we have found a “breakthrough
moment.”
Now
the challenge is that “break through moments” are mean to
be an frequent part of our lives. We need to experience them
on a regular basis because learning is a life-long process
and learning is more than just accumulating new data. We need
new wine skins by which we can see life in new ways.
So
the question from today's gospel is: when was the last time
you experienced a “breakthrough moment”? When was the last
time that you found a new wine skin, a moment in which your
understanding was deepened, your goals were shifted, your
vision was sharpened? If you struggle to remember one such
moment, there is reason for concern. But do not worry because
this Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and
Lent is all about new wine skins. We associate Lent with penance
and charity and sacrifice. Yes, all of these things are a
part of the Lenten Season. But the purpose of all of those
resolutions and all of those actions, is to open us to change.
Lent is a time when we place ourselves in God's hands and
say, “Let me grow, renew me, re-create me.”
Now
of course, if there is some serious sin in your life, if there
is a tremendous personal or family problem with which you
struggle, that sin or problem will be the focus of your Lent.
You are called to turn away from such sin and to place that
problem in the Lord's hands. But for many of us, we have no
great sin or problem. Yet we still need Lent. We are still
called to change. We must change because it is likely that
we are trapped in an old wine skin, stuck in a rut, or—like
YoYo Ma—bored with our life. Lent calls us to place our lives
in the Lord's hands and cry out, “Change me! Give me a new
wineskin! Update my program!
Allow
me deepen my understanding of life.”
What
will the Lord do with us? How will the Lord change us? It
is difficult to tell today. For it is often difficult to recognize
what new wineskins we need. But it is the belief of the Christian
Community that if we place ourselves in the Lord's hands,
God's intention for us will become clear by Easter. So come
this Wednesday, be marked with the ashes of Lent and hand
your life over to the Lord. Walk the journey of Lent with
trust and expectation, waiting for the “breakthrough” to occur.
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