#evangelisation

thou dost stretch out thy hand against the wrath of my enemies, and thy right hand delivers me.”

One Minute Reflection – 27 April – Go Forth

One Minute Reflection – 27 April – Saturday of Easter week, Gospel: Mark 16:9–15

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation...Mark 16:15

REFLECTION – “Evangelisation takes place in obedience to the missionary mandate of Jesus: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy…

Amos 9:11-15; Ps 84; Matthew 9:14-17

When new wine is made, the grape juice is put into new skins and allowed to ferment. The result of this fermentation process is the conversion of the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol. As the wine ferments, carbon dioxide is produced, and this build up of gas produces considerable pressure on the wineskin. An old wine skin, which has little elasticity would burst; the wine is lost. A new wine skin, however, stretches and is able to contain the wine. 

Jesus likens the Gospel to new wine; an image much favoured by the early Dominicans, as the Irish Dominican Fr Paul Murray OP reminds us in his enjoyable book, 'The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality'. The wine-making process involves the wonderful transformation of grape juice into something new and exhilarating; the natural is enhanced by the vintner to become something, so to speak, super-natural. Hence, the Gospel, our encounter with Jesus Christ, transforms our ordinary natural human lives and makes of them something new, exciting, and rich; transformed by supernatural grace we are destined for a glory that we could never have imagined. But in order to contain all this and not burst, we need to be renewed in heart and mind, to be stretched, and have our hearts and souls enlarged so that we can love as Christ does. So, to be stretched, we need to become like new wineskins.

The sense is that if we hold on to our old habits and ways of thinking and behaving; if we do not let the Spirit stretch us so that we become more magnanimous, generous, and elastic, then we would burst as old wineskins do, and risk losing the new wine of sanctifying grace poured into us at baptism. In St Luke’s version of this discussion, Jesus suggests that some people are too attached to the old vintage, preferring old wine to the new. But old wine - that is, life without sanctifying grace - becomes vinegar, leaving a sour taste in the mouth. So, we're being exhorted to co-operate with grace and so, to move on from our old life, from our sinful bad habits and world views which constrain and limit us. We’re exhorted to imbibe instead the newness and freedom that the Christian life brings.

For ultimately, the new wine whom we're given to drink is Christ himself; it is the Eucharist, and what is poured into our lives is nothing less than God's divine life. Or think of it like champagne, a festive celebratory wine bubbling with the effervescence of the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. This new wine of life in the Holy Trinity should so intoxicate us that we cannot help but be joyful, enthusiastic preachers of the Gospel as we celebrate with Christ the Bridegroom. 

Jesus Storybook Bible