By Jhunel Mendez
On Luke 5:33-39
Brothers and Fathers, today’s Gospel describes an encounter Jesus has with the people where He is asked why His disciples do not fast like the disciples of John or the Pharisees. Jesus answers this theologically by identifying as the bridegroom and by citing two examples, both of which are new piece of cloth and wine.
Jesus says: “No one tears a piece from a new cloak and places it on an old cloak.” He continues: “You do not put new wine into old wineskins.” The message is clear: when Christ comes into our lives, He does not only come to give us something new to add to our old lives. He calls us to a new life.
This is very important in the seminary. We all bring our various experiences and our baggage made of habits, temperaments, plans, and preconceived ideas about the future we want to see in the priesthood. Some of these things are good and should be consolidated and perfected, but also attitudes that must be transformed by Christ.
Therefore, the seminary is not just about learning of philosophy and theology and pastoral work or to the preparation to the state of those preparing for the priesthood. It is rather to be made new by Christ. Sometimes the Lord uses our lived experiences in community or our failures, even struggles in prayer, our studies, and even our frustrations to show us the areas of our life that remain to be converted.
The greatest danger is that we become set in our ways. For instance, we begin to only do the bare minimum when it comes to our duties and obligations. That could mean saying a prayer, going to class, going to meetings, and checking tasks and obligations off the list and doing so without letting the tasks and obligations become a part of us. We can become so accustomed with seminary life and so accustomed with being called by Christ that we can forget that we were actually the ones who had to respond.
Jesus reminds us that we must always have an open heart. If we do not, old wineskins will break. New wine is the presence and the gifts, and the life and the grace that Christ wishes to bestow upon us. A new wineskin is an open and new heart that is to be converted.
Just because we have closed ourselves off to new gifts, does not mean that we have to forget what we learned before we came to the seminary, or what we were before we came. It means that we allow Christ to purify and reorder our lives based on His will. True formation occurs not by our efforts to increase in knowledge or discipline, but in our efforts as men who let ourselves be formed by Christ to follow Him and to let ourselves serve His heart.
What in me has become an old wineskin? What attitude, habit, or fear am I resisting? May the Lord allow us to be formed and be new wineskins so we can receive His grace. Formation is not only about becoming a priest in the future, but being a disciple today.