22nd Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Friday (School Mass) - Do not put new wines into old wineskins

 

What a perfect Gospel for our first school Mass at the beginning of the school year:  “Do not put new wine into old wineskins”. 

In Jesus’ day, wine was a very common drink. Instead of carrying around water bottles, people would carry around wineskins—a sort of pouch—like a giant caprisun if you’ve ever had one of those. The pouch—the wineskin—was made, not out of plastic but leather. And the wineskin could be resused—it was recyclable. But over time, the leather wineskin would become dry and brittle with age. 

Now, where does wine come from? Wine is made out of grape juice a yeast. And you mix them together in the right concentration, and the yeast, which is actually alive, a living organism, eats the sugar in the grape juice, and makes two byproducts. Wine, which in those days, was much cleaner than drinking water, and also carbon dioxide gas.

So, you’ve made some wine, where do you store it? In your leather wineskin. But if the wine is still too new, it’s still fermenting a bit, it’s still producing that carbon dioxide gas. And if you put that new wine, into that old wineskin, it will burst, like a balloon that continues to expand, eventually the balloon pops. So, for new wine, you need to use a fresh, new, pliable, flexible wineskin, that will expand, as the new wine finishes its fermentation process.

I really like how Jesus gives us a little science lesson in the middle of the Gospel, and a very good lesson for the beginning of the school year.

During the course of the school year, you, students are going to be taught a lot of new material, new ideas, like new wine. But you have a choice: will you be like that old, rigid, wineskin, unwilling and unable to expand, intellectually, or will you be like that new wineskin, fresh, flexible, willing to expand. It’s a choice. Do you want to learn or not. Do you want your intellect to grow or not.

Let be honest, If you hate school, if you don’t want to learn, you will be miserable. But, if choose, and your pray for help, and ask for help when learning is difficult, then this will be a good year. 

In addition to learning about all these new ideas over in school, is my hope, and prayer, that you will also grow, not just intellectually, but spiritually. That is the purpose of a Catholic school. A Catholic school exists not just instill new ideas, but to help souls be filled with the life and love of God. 

Teachers, help these children learn, not just their academic lessons, help these students to know God. It’s not as easy as it once was, the culture does not support the knowledge of God. It has become an old, brittle wineskin, and unless there is some rehabilitation at this level, it will burst; it’s only a matter of time.

With the help of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Wonder and Awe, may each of us to be new wineskins--open to the growth, the conversion that God desires for each of us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.