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Word of the day

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Date07/09/2018

Reading of the day

1 COR 4:1-5

Brothers and sisters:
Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ
and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Now it is of course required of stewards
that they be found trustworthy.
It does not concern me in the least
that I be judged by you or any human tribunal;
I do not even pass judgment on myself;
I am not conscious of anything against me,
but I do not thereby stand acquitted;
the one who judges me is the Lord.
Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time,
until the Lord comes,
for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness
and will manifest the motives of our hearts,
and then everyone will receive praise from God.

Gospel of the day

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.'"

Words of the Holy Father

For new wine, new wineskins. This is the newness of the Gospel. What does the Gospel bring us? Joy and newness. These doctors of the law were locked up in their commandments, in their rules. One of you may tell me: but father, don’t Christians have laws? Yes! Jesus said: I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. And the fullness of the law, for example are the Beatitudes, the law of love, total love, as He, Jesus, has loved us. When Jesus reproaches these people, these doctors of the law, he admonishes them for not having safeguarded the people with the law but for having made them slaves of so many little laws, of so many little things that they had to do. To new wine, new wineskins. This is why the Church asks us, all of us, for a few changes. She asks us to leave aside fleeting structures; they aren’t necessary! And get new wineskins, those of the Gospel. They are different things. In fact, the Gospel’s approach is a different approach, which leads to the fulfillment of the law. But in a new way: it is the new wine in new wineskins. (Santa Marta, 5 Sept 2014)