New Wineskins Please

People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved (Mt 9:17)

Always a bit of confusion here, i confess. Homilies, to read for example on Sacred Space of the Irish Jesuits, refer to old Jewish practises not fitting into Christ's new message. A new paradigm. He didn't come to pat Israel on the back for a job well done, rather to clean ship and get mankind back on track. However, we are also reminded that improvements to the church can be seen as 'new wine' and thus, we must use our 'new skins' if we hope to contain them without risk of fracture, leakage or destruction; or, confusion leading to falling away from the church, and thus leading to doubt and even greater separation from God.

History is tricky. Looking back, was selling indulgences 'new wine'? It certainly burst a few wine skins. And papal infallibility? Is this too, 'new wine', a directive of God himself, spoken to free us from unhelpful rituals or bring us back into his fold? The Church's stance on so many ethical matters (divorce, contraception, sexuality) can seem like old wine skins unable or unwilling to take on new wine. Jesus himself never told us not to use contraception or that homosexuality was wrong, other people did. From old skins? These and other discussions of the Way indicate to me that new wineskins are always necessary, because otherwise we'd only ever be drinking old wine from old skins. The Pharisees probably thought very much the same! What was wrong with their old wine? How could they possibly want to drink a new vintage when the old had served them so well?

Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast (Mt 9:15)

Standing in the presence of the teaching Christ and listening to the good news He brought was not the time to cling to old ways, especially when He had come to clean ship and put mankind back on the most direct way to God. And now, though He is with us in Spirit, He was taken away and we now are fasting as per His instruction. My confusion is, are we doing just that? Is the Christianity that Christ taught now reflected by Mother Church in Rome? Or are the Orthodox Churches closer? The Protestants? The televangelists? The Mormons? OK, maybe not, but still, we are merely men, standing a falling as our faith evolves. Yet how often do we continue with our man-made wineskins of our own vintages and cling to them as if no new vintage need come, just like the Pharisees Jesus was warning?

The answer? For myself, I think prayer and meditation, a chat with the Holy Spirit within, might keep the wineskins in production. New wine and new skin will require vigilance, flexibility, openness and grace for those taking up a new vintage and compassion for those unable to give up their old skins. Me thinks that the new wine of Christ is always with us, yet it is our ego, fear, insecurity, doubt, what have you, that is happy to carry around our familiar old wineskin on that journey to the Heart of the Love. Christianity has yet to be perfected: true love of God and all mankind, universal wisdom and loving-kindness, has yet to be won. We will still be needing new wineskins.

Deo gratias.

On Harbouring Evil Thoughts and Forgiveness

"Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk?'" (Mt9:4-5)

Indeed. The first wall that i walk into when lead by my own selfish mind is self-made. Blocks of doubt, fear, regret, laziness and more. It seems the older one gets, the bigger the blocks become and the more impenetrable the fortress 'Me' becomes. When someone does something against my beliefs, my desires, my expectations, do i immediately judge and 'harbour evil thoughts'? So very often, i confess.

Forgive others as i am forgiven, we pray to God. Do i mean it? Am i aware how often evil thoughts pop into my mind: thoughts, maybe an unkind word or even a regretful action? Me thinks half the battle is being aware of these evil thoughts! If aware, i may not be able to stop them from becoming an unkind word, but at least i can stay my own hand from 'throwing a stone'. If aware, i may even be able to quiet my tongue. If aware, that unkind thought as a result of being afraid, shocked or outraged can be soothed with a prayer for forgiveness. If aware, i hope to stand firm in the light of love and peace and joy to which we are all called through and in and with the holy Trinity.

I may not be able to help a crippled man rise and walk, but i can forgive trespasses to me as i am forgiven my own mistakes.

As an afterthought, 'sin' i define as that which separates us from God and builds up the ego, something said or done to create distance from that which is good, that which is not helpful to us or our neighbour. Are sin and illness linked? Perhaps. Stress, violence, negativity all create fertile ground for illness to grow, flourish and be sustained. Kamma (Karmha) perhaps too, what one has done in ones past, will be righted in the present: how one acts can either maintain the sin or illness, or set the stage for change, for standing up and walking away from a past identity that was not helpful. Forgiveness makes that change easier. Forgiveness creates room to breath, for taking a new look at things, for considering new possibilities and making new personal choices. 'Forgive and forget' we hear. There is much wisdom in this seemingly pithy statement!

Deo gratias.

I Have Seen Jesus, Haven't You?

Jesus said to him [Thomas], "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. (Jn 20:29)

Am i like St. Thomas? Do i have to see something and feel it to know of its existence? I have never seen a galaxy or touched the ice fields of Antarctica, but i don't doubt their existence. Is God any different?

Truly, it is the Self that demands this affirmation by the senses. We know the world through our senses even though we also know that we are routinely deceived by these verysame senses. I'm cold, yet i see a teenager with shorts and his top off as if it's summer. I need to add pepper to my soup, yet others complain there is too much spice in it already. Others admire the green and red feathers of a bird, yet i cannot see them being colour blind. As kids we rolled up the windows in the car because of the manure smell while an uncle rolled his down, drew in a deep breath and declared his love of the countryside. The Buddha taught that senses were not to be trusted, that all sensations rise and pass (like the pain one feels in sitting meditation) and that the conditioned and untrained monkey mind will linger on what it likes and will panic at what it dislikes.

Indeed it is then a blessing to know something without having to use the unreliable sensory perceptions to affirm. It is a blessing to know something without the pride of ego's need for comfort. It is a blessing to know something by seeing the world in a different way, with other eyes, to see the joy and peace and compassion and wisdom that abounds and know that Christ is present. To see God everywhere and in all things.

Have i seen Jesus?

Why yes, i have through the Holy Spirit. God let met accept your gift of faith and let me grow in it, seeing you everywhere and in everyone, at work in all that breaths and moves, feel your blessed presence with me at all times that doubt's shadows and lies can be kept at bay.

Deo gratias.

Choose Faith and Not Fear

For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it. (Wis 2:23-24)

Made in His own image, life, eternal, the nature of the soul of man is imperishable. The body, of this world, is bound to the natural processes of this world, impermanence, cause and effect, rising and falling. Birth, growing, physical corruption through trauma, disease, the whole great cycle that leads to the body's death, just like the fly, the trout, the whale, the maple and all material things including suns. Through forgetting our Father and seeing death on Earth as final, those who keep the company of fear and doubt and Selfishness suffer.

Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. (2 Cor 8:9)

Let it go. Put down all the baggage you accumulate from that whisperer of Lies, the monster of Fear, that false-friend Doubt. The Word born in flesh, the face of the eternal God, the man Jesus, Christ on Earth, should have been the most powerful king, bedecked in jewels and gold, come to avenge and uphold righteousness through the sword. Yet, he did not. A despot would take away our free will. A king would reinforce the false hierarchy of pride. A wealthy man would have created greed and a host of thieves blinded by their own selfish need to secure wealth and to emulate. In poverty, the Christ could show clearly what life truly is and how we can live it as creatures sharing in the nature of the Father. In poverty there is no envy. In poverty there are fewer attachments to all that glitters on Earth. In poverty one can become master of ones own Self and be free, truly free to choose Love before all things.

Do not be afraid; just have faith. (Mk 5:36)

Do not allow death to enter your world, Jesus tells us. Do not dwell in darkness and fear. Do not see that world as random, senseless and uncaring. Let go of these false beliefs which keep you tied to the monster of lies, Jesus seems to be saying, Do not be afraid and be free. Take the faith God freely grants. Try it. Develop it. Practise it. Give thanks for this faith and together we shall grow in it. Compassion and wisdom shall grow. We will not be afraid because truly, there is nothing to fear. And we shall be free to choose our every act from a place of goodness and light and Love.

Deo gratias.