Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Luke 5: 33-39
September 05, 2025 | Friday

Today’s Gospel

Some people asked him, “The disciples of John fast often and say long prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why is it, that your disciples eat and drink?” Then Jesus said to them, “You can’t make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them. But later, the bridegroom will be taken from them; and they will fast in those days.”

Jesus also told them this parable: “No one tears a piece from a new coat to put it on an old one; otherwise the new coat will be torn, and the piece taken from the new coat will not match the old coat. No one puts new wine into old wine skins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed as well. But new wine must be put into fresh skins. Yet, no one who has tasted old wine is eager to drink new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”

Today’s Reflection

We are enjoined by our psalm today to “come with joy into the presence of the Lord.” But our hearts and minds ask, where is this joy in the Lord? It is in His sheer presence. Saint Augustine prays this eloquently: our hearts find rest in the Lord. That rest is the joy that we long for. Joy is not laughter, nor even giggles and smiles. Joy is the satisfaction of the longing filled only with the presence of that which the soul years for.

For this reason, Jesus tells us why his disciples do not fast while he is with them. There is nothing to long for while the disciples enjoy his presence. However, our attachment to the world has misled us into thinking that the world can offer what can satisfy us. Such is a similar incompatibility of the old wineskin and the new wine. We are not meant for the world, but we keep making ourselves believe this is our destination. It is tragic to make our home in a place which is not home. Yes, an emotive commonplace has been preferred by many: home is where you make it. But home is where the Lord is. And when we hear the psalmist invite us to come into the Lord’s presence, may our hearts hear the Lord’s whisper: heaven awaits.

/Vulnerasti, 2025