Twenty Second Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Lk 5: 33-39
The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
PRAYER AND FASTING: It is not easy for the world to accept changes. We see the scribes and Pharisees questioning Jesus about prayer and fasting. For them, whatever they do has to be seen by others. The response of Jesus shows that He does things differently and brings something new. That is why they question Him. As we celebrate the memorial of St. Gregory the Great, let us imitate Jesus Christ, by embracing a new life. A life not of showing off but of trusting in Jesus as St. Gregory did as he took care of the poor and spread the gospel of faith and morals. We should not do things to be seen by others but for the greater glory of God. Whatever good is done in silence, God has a way of blessing the doer.
PRAYER: Jesus, help us to realise that, the new way is always better.
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JOY IS THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY: “Joy is a net of love by which we catch souls.” says St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Where there is joy, and peace, there is Good News. Christianity has the seal of joy and happiness. Jesus Christ compares in the gospel of today the life of discipleship with the celebration of Marriage. In Bantu culture, Marriage brings the different communities to share joy with the married couples for many days. In the acts of the Apostles, we read that the first Christian community, “they shared their food with great joy and simplicity of heart.” (Acts 2:46). Wherever the disciples went, “there was great joy in that town.” (Acts 8:8); even in their sufferings and persecutions, “they were filled with Joy” (Acts 13:52). Are we disciples of joy in spite of deprivations, struggles in our Christian life? If not, we lack faith in the presence of Jesus who has called us into his love.
DAILY GOSPEL 