1 Cor 4: 1-5 / Luke 5:33-39
We like to have new things. It feels good to be the first owner of something new, and as it is said "A new broom sweeps clean".
But as with all things new, we need to also get used to it. A new phone needs to be customized. A pair of new shoes needs to "break in" before it can be comfortable. New clothes need to be washed and worn before we can get used to it.
In other words, new things need to get "seasoned" before they become part of us and then we won't want to part with them.
As we might know for ourselves, some of us have got new shirts in the cupboard, but we still keep wearing the same few shirts until they are thread-bare and we still don't want to change them. (It happens more with men than with women. With women it is always not enough dresses to change!)
Yes, when we get used to things, we will use them season in and season out, until we are so "seasoned" with them.
But in the gospel parable, Jesus said that nobody puts new wine into old wineskins. Because when the new wine was initially put into the new skins, the fermentation process would have "seasoned" the skins, and they can't be used again to put in new wine. So it is always new wine into new skins.
So when new challenges come our way, we also need to have new ways to handle them so that there will be a renewal in ourselves, a renewal of mind and heart.
Yet we can be so used and "seasoned" in our old ways that we tend to think that what worked in the past should work now, and we don't think of new ways to meet new challenges.
It often happens with the way parents handle their children. Children grow up and change fast, but the parents may still be using outdated ways of handling their children, and hence the generation gap grows wider.
As we come for the First Friday Mass and Devotion to the Sacred Heart, Jesus wants to renew our hearts so that we will be like new wineskins ready for the new wine.
It could be that we are praying for a particular intention and our prayer doesn't seem to get anywhere.
Then it is time to change and to ask Jesus to renew our hearts so that we will be open to the promptings of a new direction so that we can see that Jesus is answering our prayer.
Yes, let us pray for a renewal of our hearts so that Jesus can pour the new sweet wine into our lives.