TODAY'S WORD
By
Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore
Hebrews: 5:7 " In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the One Who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission."
TODAY'S REFLECTION
Very often we try to solve our problems and difficulties with our own resources and abilities first.
And when everything else has failed then we turn to God in desperation and we storm heaven in the hope of an immediate answer to our prayer.
But that would mean that God is that last option for a solution, when all other options have failed or didn't work.
The 1st reading tells us that during His life on earth, Jesus offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the One who had the power to save Him out of death, and He submitted so humbly that His prayer was heard.
We may tend to think that Jesus turned to God when He was literally at a "dead-end" on the Cross.
But the 1st reading tells us that during His life on earth, Jesus prayed all along as He faced rejection and threats to His life until He finally ended up on the Cross.
For Jesus, God was always the first option and also the only option, and it was His trust in God that saved Him out of death.
Let us learn from Jesus to let God be the first and only option in our lives because He has the power to save us and raise us up from our troubles and difficulties.
This is what the Lord puts forward in the Gospel of the Day by the examples of the old & new cloak and old & new wine.
Today, He uses two concepts that would have been readily understood by his listeners:
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. (Mk 1:21)
No one pours new wine into old wineskin (Mk 1: 22)
It was a known fact as to what would happen if an unshrunk (new) patch was sewn onto an old garment.
When it was washed, the new patch would shrink and pull away from the garment leaving a bigger tear than before.
In ancient Israel, the grapes were pressed in the winepress and left in the collection vats for a few days.
Fermentation starts immediately on pressing, and this allows the first "tumultuous" (gassy) phase to pass.
>> Then the fermenting juice was put in clay jars to be stored, or into wineskins if it was to be transported some distance.
When this new wine was placed into a wineskin, it continued to ferment.
So it was essential to put it into a new, flexible, skin that would expand, as the carbon dioxide gas (a by-product of fermentation) was given off.
In Biblical history, these examples illustrate the incompatibility of the old with the new.
The new is Jesus' message of the Kingdom of God.
The old is the present status of Judaism.
Contextually, what do these examples mean to us today?
We have professed and declared ourselves to be Christians, following the path of Jesus.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
Is there a newness and a novelty that I experience and live in my daily life?
Does Jesus Christ really effect any difference in my attitudes and my actions?
For long, perhaps, we have been proud to carry the tag of being a Christian.
But is it not time that Christ really begins to become "REAL" and "LIVING" in my life?
We often “use” Christianity as a bait to obtain concessions, quotas, easy entries for jobs etc...
But does Christianity make me to live the values of the Gospel to root out corruption from the society & within ourselves?
As Christians, we are often portrayed as "forward" people - associated as a culture of posh and sophisticated living, as a "wine-and-cake" people and as "short-dresses-folk!"
These are not to be trademarks of a Real Christian!!
Does being a Christian…
… impel me to forego a sinful life and seek after holiness?
… encourage me to stand for the values of truth and honesty?
… make me to be less materialistic and more focused on things eternal?
… make me shun peer & societal pressures & stand for moral convictions?
… propel me to defy evil tendencies of the world and be firm to the Kingdom values?
The one who is truly living in the Lord, cannot, but alter his/her sinful way of life.
The one who is really professing to be a Christian, cannot, but seek after holiness.
Let Jesus, as a beautiful vase, occupy the greatest presence and authority in my life!
This would certainly mean changing the old carpet of sinfulness and evil habits.
This would certainly mean painting the soiled walls with the new shade of holiness.
RESOLUTION
Let us resolve to make the newness and the novelty of the Lord sparkle and glitter in our everyday Christian Life!
HAVE A GREAT DAY AND A POSITIVE WEEK AHEAD