No! New wine into fresh wineskins!
Mark 2:18-22
Jesus tells his listeners when new wine is put into old, rigid and brittle wineskins
the result will always be disastrous. The wine will burst the skins because there is
no room for it to ferment and expand, and so the skins and the new wine are destroyed.
Similarly, when we are unyielding and inflexible in the face of change, we run the risk of destroying everything. When our children, students, co-workers, employers introduce new ideas or new ways of thinking and we are not open to dialogue, just like the old wineskins we will not be able to appreciate and savour the new wine. Consequently, both the new wine, and the old wineskins would have lost out on an opportunity to make a difference.
However, viewing ourselves as new wine in fresh wineskins enables us to expand our horizons, to explore new avenues, thus welcoming transformation in all its forms.
Thank you, dear Father, for challenging us to leave behind the old wineskins and to embrace the opportunities the new skins bring. Amen