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What
New Wine Needs
Fr. George Smiga
March 1, 2003
Mark
2:18-22
One year
when I was in the seminary, I was assigned to a parish in
Akron. There was in the rectory of that parish a retired priest
who was opposed to any new ideas that anyone would ever bring
up. If members of the staff were to suggest a new way of preparing
people for marriage, or a new program that they thought would
be better for our youth ministry, this priest would object:
"Why would you want to do that? We tried that in the
'50's and it didn't work. I hear they're trying it at some
parish in Lorain and it's a disaster." No matter what
new idea was suggested, this priest would be against it. If
he would have things his way, everything would stay exactly
the way that it was.
Over time,
the staff developed a nickname for this priest. They called
him "the old wineskin". It was a name that came
from today's gospel. Because in today's gospel, Jesus says
that we should not put new wine into old wineskins. What does
he have in mind?
In the
ancient world, it was not easy to carry liquids from one place
to another. There were no waxed paper cartons or plastic bottles.
The most common solution was to use an animal skin. People
would take a small animal, usually a goat, and after it was
slaughtered, skin it by making as few cuts as possible. Then
they would tan the skin into a soft and pliable leather that
then could be sewed up and sealed, making an ideal container
to carry water or wine from one place to another. This container
was called a wineskin. It would, however, only work for a
while. After it had been out in the hot sun for a number of
years, the leather would begin to dry up. In time the old
wineskin would crack and no longer be usable. It was particularly
dangerous to carry new wine in such a skin. New wine was wine
that was still fermenting, and the fermenting process would
exert pressure from within the skin. So to put new wine in
an old wineskin would be a disaster, because as the gospel
says, the skin would burst and both the wine and the skin
would be lost. That is why in the ancient world, people were
always careful to put new wine into new wineskins. For only
these flexible skins could allow room for expansion.
Jesus
uses this commonly recognized truth to make a statement today
about the gospel. He says that his message and God's daily
gifts to us are like new wine. They therefore need to be placed
into new wineskins, in skins that are able to expand, skins
that are flexible. An old wineskin which is brittle and ready
to break is not be able to receive the good news of the Kingdom.
Jesus
is pointing to an important truth. Each day, God gives us
some wine to carry. Sometimes it is old, mature wine. Old
wine is compatible with our usual habits, our old friends,
our common expectations. Those days on which we are asked
to carry old wine are comfortable, easy days, days that we
enjoy. But not infrequently we are asked to carry new wine,
wine that presents unexpected occurrences, new demands, surprising
ideas. There is plenty of new wine in our world and in our
lives. We have been challenged facing the new realities that
came into place after September 11th. We have been challenged
by adjusting to a new understanding of our church, marked
by scandal. We have been challenged because we are dealing
with a failing economy. We have been challenged as our country
prepares for war. There are personal examples: changes that
happen in our family, poor decisions that our children make,
new realities in our work, in our marriage.
All these
things are examples of new wine which we are asked to carry.
New wine places new demands upon us. How do we carry them?
Only by being new wineskins. Only by being people who are
both flexible and hopeful. We need to be flexible people,
open to new ideas, open to new ways of understanding the world.
We need to be hopeful, believing that the wine that God gives
us, even if it is still fermenting and difficult to carry,
is nevertheless a gift. If we continue to be flexible and
hopeful, we will eventually recognize the good things that
God is offering us.
Old wineskins
can carry some things, but they are not able to carry that
which is new, that which still has power to expand and to
enlarge. That is why people who are closed to new ideas, like
the priest that I knew in Akron many years ago, often end
up saddened and embittered. So don't be an old wineskin. The
only way to accept the good news of the Kingdom and the daily
gifts that God gives us is to be a new wineskin. We must be
people who are flexible and hopeful. Let us today choose to
be people who are open to life. Let us be wineskins that are
capable of carrying the good news, the new wine of Christ's
kingdom.
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