Gospel

‘When the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast.’
Luke 5:33–39

At that time: The Pharisees and scribes said to him, ‘The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.’ He also told them a parable: ‘No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, “The old is good.” ’

The Gospel of the Lord

New marriage

Christ refers to the Bridegroom, and inevitably He speaks directly to us married couples. Christ is the Bridegroom who comes to meet us and who wants to enter into our married life. Marriage is not simply two people trying to love one another better; it is a vocation in which Christ wants to make Himself present and renew our love.
Many times we want to live a new marriage with an old heart. We want our husband to change, our circumstances to change, for there to be more dialogue, more affection, more patience… but we continue reacting in the same way: defending our own criteria, holding on to our hurts, making demands of the other or trying to change them.
The new wine is Christ. And we are the new wineskins when we allow Him to transform us.
It is not a matter of putting a small Christian “patch” over the way we live our marriage. It is not enough to pray a little more or go to Mass on Sundays and then continue living from selfishness, demands or self-sufficiency.
Christ wants to give us a new love: a love capable of forgiving, of giving oneself, of waiting, of understanding and of seeking the good of the other before our own, and this requires a new heart.
Let us ask the Lord today not to try to mend our marriage with little patches, but to grant us «new wineskins»: a heart capable of receiving the new wine of His Love. Because when Christ renews our heart, our marriage also begins to be renewed.

Applied to Married Life:

Nicholas: I don’t know what else to do with you. We talk and we always end up the same way.
Sophie: Because you don’t listen to me either. You only want me to do things your way.
Nicholas: It’s just that you seem not to care about anything I do!
Sophie: It’s not that I don’t care. But I’m tired of feeling that, whatever I do, it’s never enough for you.
There was silence. They were both hurt. They had been trying to resolve that situation for some time, but every conversation ended up opening a new wound.
Nicholas: Perhaps we are trying to fix our marriage by our own strength.
Sophie: And what do you want us to do?
Nicholas: I don’t know… But today, in prayer, the Gospel came to me: «New wine, new wineskins». Perhaps we are asking for a new love, but we are still the same as always.
Sophie: It could be. I’ve been asking Jesus for days to change you.
Nicholas: Hehe! And I’ve been asking Him for days to change you.
Sophie: Then perhaps we are the ones who need to change.
Nicholas: Well, perhaps it is better to say that… we are the ones who need to allow Jesus to change us.
Sophie: You’re right, Nicholas! Then, in our conjugal prayer, let’s ask the Lord to change our hearts.

Mother,
Help us to allow Your Son to transform our hearts so that we may receive Him as You did. Praised be the Lord!