Chapter
19
by Fr. Thomas Keating
The New Wine
Then the disciples of John came to him,
saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often but your disciples do not
fast?" 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 unshrunk 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." (Matthew 9:14-17)
John the Baptist
made quite a stir in Israel and attracted many disciples. Jesus was baptized by
him and drew his first disciples from among John's followers. John was austere.
He wore a loincloth and ate only locusts and wild honey. He practiced much
fasting and expected the same of his disciples.
When there are two
spiritual teachers or religious communities in the same neighborhood, the
loyalties of one group may conflict with the loyalties of the other. There may
be some mutual denigrating and backbiting. Comparisons may be made between our
observance and their observance, our spiritual teacher and their
spiritual teacher, our tradition and their tradition.
In this incident,
John's disciples were sniping at the disciples of Jesus. They said, "How is
it that the Pharisees and we fast and you folks do not?"--implying that
Jesus' disciples were not measuring up to the high standards of John's.
"Who are you" is the implication of the question, "Compared with
us?" An austere observance draws public attention, admiration, and acclaim.
Jesus graciously
adjusts himself to these human foibles. He responds with a question of his own,
"How can the wedding guests go mourning while the bridegroom is with
them?" By this question he implies that John's disciples are not seeing the
whole picture. They are looking for holiness, but in the wrong place. He adds,
"When the bridegroom is taken away, then the wedding guests will
fast."
He appeals to the
fact that his presence among his disciples is a celebration and that it is not
appropriate to mourn while attending a wedding. At the very least, they will not
be welcome guests. A celebration requires the capacity to receive as well as to
give. When God graciously comes into our lives for a few minutes, it is not the
time to practice our customary austerities. It is like having a surprise visit
from a dear relative who comes to share affection and love, and who finds us too
busy with various chores to say anything but, "Come back some other
time."
Jesus continues,
"Nobody sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. That will only
make the rip bigger." And he adds, "People do not pour new wine into
old wineskins." An old wineskin dries out, shrivels, and cracks. If we put
new wine into it, the chemicals that are still being processed in the new wine
will burst the old skin. The old skin does not have the flexibility to expand
with the effervescence.
New wine is a
marvelous image of the Holy Spirit. As we move to the intuitive level of
consciousness through contemplative prayer, the exuberance 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, according to Gal.
5:22-24, 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 then the
old ones. If we lean too heavily on the old structures, the new wine of the
Spirit will be lost. This happened in the late Middle Ages and especially in the
post-Reformation Catholic Church when the emphasis moved from cultivating the
fruits of the Spirit to conformity to doctrinal formulas and external
observances. That is why we found ourselves at the time of Vatican II in a
spiritual desert. The old wine had run out. Renewal in the Spirit, the new wine,
is our recovery of the contemplative tradition of Christianity. But this
movement of the Spirit has to be put into new structures; the old ones are
likely to burst.
Is it possible to
renovate old wineskins? With a lot of greasing they may regain some flexibility,
but not as much as new ones. The process may also take along time.
What will happen
with the renewal of contemplative life among lay folks? We will see new forms of
contemplative lifestyles that better serve the new wine with its tendency to
expand, to excite, and to go to one's head, so to speak. The new wine is the
contemplative dimension of the gospel. Its basic act is consent to the presence
and action of the Spirit within us. This consent is directed not to our
intentionality but to God's intentionality. The Spirit who loves us first is
pouring the wine, not we. It is a mistake to think that we have to win God's
attention or impress God with our virtues. That is not the new wine. That is an
attitude that belongs to the old wine where our virtues are viewed as the
necessary means of winning God's favor.
If we consent to
God's intentionality, God works in us through the fruits of the Spirit:
boundless compassion, joy, peace, and the others enumerated by Paul. No
structure can contain such wine. Paul adds, "Those who are moved by the
Spirit have no Law." They are beyond any law because they fulfill the
purpose of all laws, which is the continuous flow of divine love and compassion.
Thus they fulfill every just law spontaneously.
More information can be obtained by reading the book The
Kingdom of God is Like . . .by Fr. Thomas Keating. It is offered in our Book
Store.
