GOSPEL REFLECTION OF POPE FRANCIS - 07/08/23 (Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time)

From the Gospel according to Matthew

Mt 9,14-17

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,

"Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,

but your disciples do not fast?"

Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn

as long as the bridegroom is with them?

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,

and then they will fast.

No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,

for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.

People do not put new wine into old wineskins.

Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.

Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."

WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER

New wine into old wineskins. Thus “for new wine, new wineskins”. This “is the newness of the Gospel”. Francis then asked, “what does the Gospel bring us? Joy and newness”. However, he continued, “these doctors of the law were locked up in their commandments, in their rules. (…) “One of you may tell me: but father, don’t Christians have laws? Yes! Jesus said: I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it”. And the “fullness of the law, for example are the Beatitudes, the law of love, total love, as He, Jesus, has loved us”. (…) This is why “the Church asks us, all of us, for a few changes. She asks us to leave aside fleeting structures; they aren’t necessary! And get new wineskins, those of the Gospel”. “It is not possible to understand the mentality, for example, of these doctors of the law, these Pharisee theologians, with the spirit of the Gospel. They are different things”. In fact, “the Gospel’s approach is a different approach, which leads to the fulfillment of the law”. But “in a new way: it is the new wine in new wineskins”. (Santa Marta, 5 Sept 2014)

Source:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/word-of-the-day.html

Amen +

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, be with us always until the hour of our death. Amen. +

May the Lord + bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen. +  

Examination of Conscience and Guide to Sacrament of Confession:

https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/examination-of-conscience/

Ultimate Catholic Parents Guide:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ls6IcexZAls

Summary and Defense of Catholic Teachings:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/word-of-the-day.html