Homily for Friday Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 3rd September, 2021. The Memorial of St Gregory The Great

 Homily for Friday Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 3rd September, 2021. The Memorial of St Gregory The Great

Readings: Col. 1:15-20; Ps. 100; Luke 5:33-39

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

DO NOT MIX YOUR OLD SINFUL WAYS OF LIFE WITH YOUR NEW LIFE OF GRACE

Often time we find it difficult to let go our ugly old ways of life, because we are so much attached to it. But we must get rid of it if we really want to follow Jesus. Little wonder, Jesus in the Gospel passage today talks about the importance of pouring new wine into fresh wineskins and the need to avoid using new cloak to patch an old one. He said: nobody puts new wine into old skins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will be lost. No; new wine must be put into fresh skins. And nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. “The old is good”. 

Here, Jesus continues to show that he is bringing something totally new which should not be mixed with the old. So, the fresh wineskins refer to a new heart that has put off the old cloak and looks forward to the new wine of grace through the process of conversion where we embrace the gift of New Life which Jesus is offering to humanity. A gift that differentiate his disciples from other people. As we heard that the Pharisees and the Scribes made the observation concerning the relationship between the disciples of Jesus and the disciples of John the Baptist as regards their new ways of doing things. So they came to Jesus and asked him question regarding their manner of fasting and feasting. Jesus used this opportunity to educate them about the New Life of grace which he has come to offer humanity. 

For Jesus is the groom and as long as he is around, it would be inappropriate for his disciples to fast. And as his bride, he loves us with a deep and everlasting love. He paid all our debts; he supplies all our daily needs; he sympathizes with us in all our troubles; he bears with all our infirmities, and does not reject us because of our weaknesses. However, a time will come when the groom will no longer be with us, then we will surely fast. Telling us that fasting should be done at the right time for the right reasons. Thus, St. Paul tells us in our first reading, that God wanted all perfection to be found in him through Christ and all things to be reconciled through him and for him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, when he made peace by his death on the cross.

Dear friends, today we are called not to mix our old sinful ways of life with the New Life of Grace God is offering us. Therefore, what is that old garment in our lives that we are patching with the new? What is that old wine of habitual sin that we are pouring into the new wine skins of our redeemed and purified soul? Today we are called to give a fresh response towards embracing this New Life of grace which Jesus is offering us. 

As we think about these, let us struggle to avoid our old sinful ways of life and fully embrace the new righteous way of life that God is offering us today. Just like Pope St. Gregory the Great whose memorial we celebrate today, for he had a personal encounter with the Lord which propelled his effort in spreading the Gospel message and by so doing converted more and more souls to the Lord.

LET US PRAY: Almighty God, You are the source of our New Life, grant us through the intercessions of St Gregory The Great the grace of true and total conversion so as to find such great Joy in your abundant Life of grace and mercy, through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a blessed and peaceful day.