Mark 2: 18-22
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
What Needs an Update?
I am a creature of habit. I have my routines; I know what works and I stick to it. But every January, I get restless and start thinking: new year, new me; out with the old and in with the new. These clichés are shorthand for my realization that I can’t keep using old systems to navigate new realities.
This is basically the question posed to Jesus in today’s Gospel: Why aren’t you doing it the way it’s always been done? Fasting was the standard practice that showed you took your faith seriously. And while Jesus doesn’t dismiss it, he does reframe it. The practice still matters—but not now. You don’t fast at a wedding. You dress up and you celebrate.
Jesus’ image of new wine and old wineskins isn’t a critique of tradition, but a warning about mismatch. If we run old software on a new device, it’s going to freeze, crash, and drain the battery. The problem isn’t the new or the old; it’s forcing them together when they no longer fit. What might God be asking us to update so something new can grow?
—Jackie Schulte is the Interim Head of School and Dean of Faculty Formation at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, Nebraska.
Prayer
Loving God,
help us notice what no longer fits
Loosen our attachment to what once worked,
and open our hearts to respond faithfully to what you are doing now.
Make us ready to receive the new life you offer.
Amen.
—Jackie Schulte
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Pray with the monthly prayer intentions of the pope.