Monday, January 16,
2017
From today’s Gospel (Monday of
the 2nd Week of Ordinary Time)
No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will
burst the skins and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is
poured into fresh wineskins. (Mark 2:22)
In our search for God, we often
walk what is called the via negativa,
or the negative way. “No, not this.
No, not that. God is not this way. God is not that way.” In our search for God,
we are continually called to cast off our old ideas about God because they are
insufficient according to the reality and insight what we are being led to
discover.
We have an innate tendency to
cling to what we already know, and sometimes to make a religion out of it. But
such religion quickly becomes toxic; rather than being based on a faith that
helps us and heals us, it becomes a faith that hurts us. In fact, there was an
interesting book written about 15 years ago with the name Toxic Faith, and the title was eventually changed into Faith that hurts, faith that heals. If
you are making progress in the spiritual life, then you are discovering for
yourself the difference between the two. Again, the via negativa becomes the road to liberation: “No! This notion is
not doing me any good. No! This idea is keeping me bound rather than helping me
progress in my faith.”
The via negativa sometimes yields
a positive result, if we are willing to heed its counsel: “God is bigger than
what I had previously thought. God’s mercy is greater than the limitations I
have placed upon it. God loves me more than what I have been able to accept in
light of what I am grasping now.”
Think about where you were three
or five years ago. Think about how much freer you have become. Consider what
were the old wineskins and eventually burst as you were offered new wine. And,
once you have done this, realize that God is still offering you new wine. Can
you enlarge your capacity to receive so that this new wine may be poured into
new wineskins?
If you are wondering how you
might apply these suggestions in your current live, I would tentatively suggest
the following: Look at the places where you find yourself stuck. Look at the
ideas or the insights that contradict what you have previously believed to be
true and check them against the reality of your own experience. Ask yourself
(and pray) if the Holy Spirit may be leading you where you have not been
willing to go before.
If read carefully, the
Scriptures can be seen as stories of countless men and women who were opening
to receiving the new wine. I can’t help thinking of the beautiful story of the
wedding at Cana, when Jesus had turned the water into wine and the stewards had
reacted this way: “Everyone serves the
good wine first, and then the inferior wine . . . But you have kept the good
wine until now.” (John 2:10)
I close with the words of Saint
Paul encouraging us to accept the new wine: acquire
a fresh new spiritual way of thinking. (I apologize, but I cannot find the
citation for this.)
God bless you!
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