Fr. Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for Friday, 22nd Week of the Year

September 6, 2024, Luke 5:33-39
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090624.cfm

Fasting and Wine Cloths

When asked a question about his disciples’ fasting, Jesus said there would be a time when they would fast after his Ascension into heaven. He tells a parable about wineskins to help us understand how important fasting is in our walk with Jesus. What do wineskins have to do with fasting? 

In our Lord’s time, people didn’t have glass, so they used wineskins to carry wine.  

Old wineskins were brittle and could crack under pressure. They used new wineskins because they were elastic and could expand under the pressure the gas gave off when the wine fermented. 

Well, like wineskins, we have to ferment, too. Our minds and hearts have to expand to bear Jesus to the world. No one who comes to know Christ Jesus personally can stay the same. None of us are perfect. Just think how entrenched we become in our thinking and attitudes. When we do and refuse to change, our hearts become hardened like an old wineskin. 

When we fast, we deny what is ours so we can grow into what is Christ’s. We’re hungry for all He offers us, both new and different. If we don’t fast, our hardened hearts will crack because Jesus is more than we can humanly hold. 

Our old ways of thinking and behaving, praying and relating to God and people are like old wineskins that have no give. My way or the highway, we say. Please, God, we will change and grow and become another Christ-like all the saints. 

I love this saying of St. Padre Pio: “If the people of the whole world could see the beauty of only one soul when it is in the grace of God, all sinners and unbelievers of this world would be converted.” Let us never be afraid to change anything human in our life for Jesus, whatever the sacrifice or momentary embarrassment it may cause us. 

Gospel Challenge:
Let us ask Him to help us throw away our hardened hearts and create hearts worthy of Him, who is the most precious vintage of all. We want nothing that our Lord Jesus gives us so generously to spill out and be lost. 

Peace be with you.

Love Your Neighbor!

Fr. Rick Pilger, IC
pastor@bscchurch.com