The New Wine

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Matthew 9:14-17

The disciples of John came to [Jesus], saying "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them; can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away, from the cloak and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise; the skins burst, and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."

New wine is a marvelous image of the Holy Spirit. As we move to the intuitive level of consciousness through contemplative prayer, the energy of the Spirit cannot be contained in the old structures. They are not flexible enough. They may have to be left aside or adapted. The new wine as a symbol of the Spirit has a tendency to stir people up; for that reason, the Fathers of the Church called it "sober intoxication." Although its exuberance is subdued, it breaks out of categories and cannot be contained in neat boxes.

Jesus points out to John's disciples that they have a good practice but are too attached to fasting as a structure. The wine of the Spirit that Jesus brings will not fit into their narrow ideas. They must expand their views. Otherwise, the new wine of the Gospel will give them trouble. It will burst the narrow confines of their mindsets, and both what they have and what they are trying to receive will be lost.

Jesus suggests a solution: "Put the new wine into new wineskins." The new wine of the Gospel is manifested by the fruits of the Spirit which are nine aspects of the mind of Christ. If the new wine is to be preserved, new structures have to be found that are more appropriate than the old ones.

~ Awakenings

Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit; create in us the nine-fold
aspects of the mind of Christ that St. Paul calls
the Fruits of the Spirit especially the peace
which surpasses all understanding.

I Call Sinners

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Luke 5:30-32

The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to [Jesus'] disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus answered, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance. "

When Jesus said, "I've come to call not the self-righteous, but sinners," this was big news. This statement warns those who pursue the spiritual journey to be aware of the serious disease that afflicts them. Contemplative prayer is a kind of antibiotic for this disease. Notice the heavy irony in Jesus' words. "I have come to call not the self-righteous, but sinners." Everybody suffers from the disease of the human condition (original sin) and is therefore a sinner It is just a matter of degree. People who think they are not sick, who regard themselves as righteous or God's greatest gifts to humanity, are the subject of Jesus' ironic statement: "People in good health do not need a doctor. Sick people do." To paraphrase: "If you are willing to recognize the disease of the false self, I am at your service."

This juxtaposition of people who know they are sinners and those who do not know they are sinners though they are just as sick occurs in the parables. Take the prodigal son. As soon as the profligate comes home, he is treated to a celebration. . . .

The sacrament of reconciliation is not only the confession of sins, but the celebration that our sins have been forgiven. It is the same kind of event that the prodigal son celebrated. . . . Self righteous people cannot understand how God can celebrate the return of profligates, crooks and extortionists just because they seem to have turned over a new leaf. The respectability that tends to cling to us when we lead a fairly good life hides our own tendency to prefer ourselves to the rights and needs of others.

Obvious sinners seem to be in a better situation. When they hit bottom, where else can they go except into the mercy of God? We could go there without having to hit bottom if we recognized that we too are sinners in need of healing.

~ Awakenings

Prayer

O Holy Spirit, free us from our idealized image
of ourselves which overreacts to daily life with
feelings of self-exaltation or self-depreciation.
Guide us to a true and humble knowledge and
acceptance of who we really are.

Temptation

First Sunday in Lent

Luke 4:1-2

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.

Jesus appears in the desert as the representative of the human race. He bears within himself the experience of the human predicament in its raw intensity. Hence, he is vulnerable to the temptations of Satan. Satan in the New Testament means the Enemy or the Adversary, a mysterious and malicious spirit that seems to be more than a mere personification of our unconscious evil tendencies. The temptations of Satan are allowed by God to help us confront our own evil tendencies. If relatives and friends fail to bring out the worst in us, Satan is always around to finish the job. Self knowledge is experiential; it tastes the full depths of human weakness.

In the desert Jesus is tempted by the primitive instincts of human nature. Satan first addresses Jesus' security/survival needs, which constitute the first energy level: "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread."

After fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus must have been desperately hungry. His reply to Satan's suggestion is that it is not up to him to protect or to save himself; it is up to the Father to provide for him. "Not on bread alone does one live, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." God has promised to provide for everyone who trusts in him. Jesus refuses to take his own salvation in hand and waits for God to rescue him.

The devil then took Jesus to the holy city, set him on the parapet of the temple and suggested, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. Scripture has it, 'He will bid his angels take care of you; with their hands they support you, that you may not stumble upon a stone!'"

In other words, "If you are the Son of God, manifest your power as a wonderworker. Jump off this skyscraper. When you stand up and walk, everybody will regard you as a bigshot and bow down before you." This is the temptation to love fame and public esteem.

Affection/esteem constitute the center of gravity of the second energy center Everybody needs a measure of acceptance and affirmation. In the path from infancy to adulthood, if these needs are denied, one seeks compensation for the real or imagined deprivations of early childhood. The greater the deprivation, the greater the neurotic drive for compensation.

In the text, Satan subtly quotes Psalm 90, the great theme song of Lent, a psalm of boundless confidence in God under all circumstances. He suggests that if Jesus leaps off the temple parapet, God will have to protect him. Jesus responds, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." In other words, no matter how many proofs of God's special love we may have, we may not take our salvation into our own hands. Jesus rejects the happiness program that seeks the glorification of the self as a wonderworker or spiritual luminary.

The third energy center is the desire to control events and to have power over others. Satan took Jesus to a lofty mountain and displayed before him all the kingdoms of the world, promising, "All these I will bestow on you if you prostrate yourself in homage before me." The temptation to worship Satan in exchange for the symbols of unlimited power is the last-ditch effort of the false self to achieve its own invulnerability and immortality. Jesus replied, "Away with you, Satan. Scripture says, 'You shall do homage to the Lord your God; him alone shall you adore.'" Adoration of God is the antidote to pride and lust for power. Service of others and not domination is the path to true happiness.

Thus, out of love for us, Jesus experienced the temptations of the first three energy centers. Each Lent he invites us to join him in the desert and to share his trials.

~The Mystery of Christ

Prayer

Holy Spirit of Truth, teach us how to relinquish
our over-identification with our bodies, feelings,
emotional programs, for happiness, intellectual
powers, cultural conditioning and idealized
image of ourselves. Thus, may we be free just to
be our true selves and to do Your will.

~~~~~