HOMILY OF FRIDAY OF THE TWENTHY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C.
5TH SEPTEMBER 2025.
BY REV FR. ADOLE ACHILLEUS ILE LAMPEZ CSSp.
1st reading : Colossians 1:15-20
Psalm 99:2-5
Gospel : Luke 5:33-39
There is a saying: that what you did not welcome into your house with an open door, you should not allow that to enter your home through the window of your house. Again, the teeth should not be used to share or divide anything that is not edible.
In our gospel text today, Jesus addresses his disciples with a parable thus, “… No one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; if he does, not only will he have torn the new one, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old.
‘And nobody puts new wine into old skins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will be lost. No; new wine must be put into fresh skins…”
These parables could have many meanings drawn from it, but for our reflection today, let us look at it in this way below!
The old and new cloaks used by Jesus in this parable shows the incompatibility of the good and the bad, because for one to make an attempt to attach a new cloak to an old one signifies that something is already wrong with the old cloak, and Just like Jesus said, they will not match and even the new cloak will be destroyed. Put in simple terms, a mixture of some good and some bad cannot give you something good as a result. This is for those of us who believe that we need to have some bad elements (violence as popularly said) in our lives for survival even in our practice of faith.
Furthermore, the old wine skins burst when it receives a new wine, and both the new wine and the old skins are lost. Here, the old wine skins represent our former lives before we accepted Christ, and the new wine is the Christ whom we have received. Also, the old ways of life and the life after we have received Christ are not compatible in one person, and so when you receive Christ who is the new wine, you will need a new way of life (a new wine skin) that will be compatible with the new wine you have received whom is Christ himself.
This explains why, when we look at our lives as Christians and see that we are living contrary to the dictates of what Christianity upholds, it simply means that we are attaching a new piece of cloak to an old one, or pouring a new wine into an old wine skins. These are always incompatible.
So, when we profess our faith in Christ, we must let go in totality of everything else that goes contrary to what Christ teaches. And we pray that He may give us the grace to be firm in the faith we profess in Him.
Peace be with you
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