Clinging to Old Wineskins

Our natural inclination is to hang on to the old, to avoid change, to stay with what is comfortable and routine.  To be sure, there is nothing unusual about this.  Almost all people would admit that change is difficult at best.

Currently the seven American OFM Franciscan Provinces are in discussions about reconfiguring our province boundaries and the possibility of reducing the number of provinces from seven to fewer, maybe even only one American province.  This possibility has sent shivers through the lives of many older friars, and I count myself in that number.  Even though we are all members of the same Religious Order, we are different from one another.  In my forty-seven years of Franciscan life, I have spent two of those years living in a province other than my own.  I will admit that when the opportunity arose to transfer back to Sacred Heart Province, I jumped at the chance.  For a time I even referred to those two years as my personal Babylonian exile. 

Today’s Gospel reading challenges all followers of Jesus to embrace the need for change.  I wish I could say that my prayer with the Scriptures this morning made me change my mind about the possibilities that lie before me.  What this Gospel did do, however, was to challenge me to approach my reality prayerfully and with trust in the Lord’s will. 

Following hard upon yesterday’s Gospel which challenged us to “Put out into deep water. . . ,” today’s proverbs remind us that sometimes we have to put aside the old in order to embrace the new.  New wine doesn’t fare well in old wineskins. 

This all leads me to the realization that as much as I love to read, study and pray with the Gospels, I do not always embrace the challenge that they place before me.  Like many, I have grown complacent with my understanding of the Gospel.  When Jesus challenged Peter to put out into deep water, he was asking Peter to take a risk.  This action could have led to ridicule and embarrassment.  The fishermen of Galilee were just as set in their ways as we are. 

If the Gospel is to remain new, then we must also accept the new wineskins even though we may find it uncomfortable to do so.  Once again, the old saying about the Jesus and the Gospels has proven itself true.  Jesus came to comfort the uncomfortable and to make the comfortable uncomfortable!

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator