They pour new wine into fresh wineskins

6 JULY (Mt 9,14-17)

God had put his truth in the old skin of man’s heart. With the prophet Ezekiel he promises to create the new wineskin, that is the new heart. With the prophet Jeremiah he decides to write his law in the new heart. The one and the other are the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the one that creates the new heart, and he is the one that writes the Law in it.

I will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the stony heart from their bodies, and replace it with a natural heart (Ez 11, 19). Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? (Ez 18, 31). I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts (Ez 36, 26).

The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will seed the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. As I once watched over them to uproot and pull down, to destroy, to ruin, and to harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall no longer say, “The fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” but through his own fault only shall anyone die: the teeth of him who eats the unripe grapes shall be set on edge. The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the Lord. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more. Thus says the Lord, He who gives the sun to light the day, moon and stars to light the night; Who stirs up the sea till its waves roar, whose name is Lord of hosts: If ever these natural laws give way in spite of me, says the Lord, Then shall the race of Israel cease as a nation before me forever. Thus says the Lord: If the heavens on high can be measured, or the foundations below the earth be sounded, Then will I cast off the whole race of Israel because of all they have done, says the Lord. (Jer 31,27-37).

David has the experience of his grave sin of adultery and murder. They are the fruit of his old wineskin full of lust and evil desires. He asks the Lord to give him a new wineskin, to create it for him. With the new wineskin, new thoughts and new desires.

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise (Cf. Psalm 51 (50), 1-21).

Everything is old for the old skin: practices, procedures, forms, rituals and thoughts.

Then the disciples of John approached him and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast (much), but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Everything is new for the new wineskin: practices, procedures, forms, rituals and desires.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints, obtain for us the new wineskin.