One of the best ways to grow in prayer as a Christian is to pray with the Word everyday. In the Catholic Church we are given daily Mass readings that take us through the liturgical year in cycles. Right now we are in “ordinary time.” We have special choices of readings during the Advent, Lent, and Easter seasons. Currently we are reading First Corinthians and the Gospel of Luke. The Scriptures always seem to apply to the times that we are in! I am convinced, that when Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” (Mt 11:15, 13:9, 13:43; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8, Luke 14:35), He was not only echoing the prophets, (Is 6:10, 30:21, 35:5, 43:8; Zech 7:11; Jer 7:24, 35:15), but He was speaking to us. He does this everyday in the Mass readings, and I will venture to say…
It is essential for a Christian to read and pray with the Word of God everyday.
This week, in particular, I was struck by Jesus’ parable about the new cloak and the new wineskins. He says:
“No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one.
Otherwise, he will tear the new
and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins,
and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new,
for he says, ‘The old is good.’” (Lk 5:36-39).
This reminded me of something I read in my ESV Study Bible (a Protestant Bible) last week, commenting on 1 Cor 1:17, in which Paul said, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” The comment in my ESV Study Bible was, “Hearing and believing in the Gospel, unlike baptism, is essential to salvation.”
My goodness. If we take the words “unlike baptism” out then this statement is true. One thing we like to say in the Catholic Church is, “Both/And.” It is both baptism and hearing and believing in the Gospel! Baptism is clearly required as the normal means of salvation. Jesus told His disciples to baptize all in Matthew 28:19. Baptism was done throughout the Acts of the Apostles so that the Holy Spirit would come upon all who believe. Does God need Baptism to infuse the Holy Spirit? No. But we do, because Jesus told us to do this! God is so loving and powerful that He can and will dwell in His people (Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, the prophets…etc!) for the purpose of drawing all to Himself in love. We assent to this teaching of Christ and the apostles that we are to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and we then receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
You may be wondering what this has to do with new/old cloaks and new/old wineskins.
The new wine is the new covenant. It is the Gospel! In order to receive the Gospel we must be cleansed through Baptism. When we are baptized we are completely cleansed from Original Sin. We put on the white garment of Christ and receive His light and truth, living in the Holy Spirit. Our old wine skins are made new, so to speak. The salvation that Jesus won for us through His death and Resurrection is ours. The blessed Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – make their dwelling within us. (see Jn 14:15-17). We belong to the family of God. We are anointed priest, prophet and king. Living in Christ, we offer our lives to God as priest, (this is the universal priesthood of the faithful that all the baptized share), we live and proclaim the Word as prophet, and in freedom, we direct our lives towards Heaven through our daily choices as king.
This is our birthright as the baptized faithful.
We cannot receive the fullness of Gospel unless we are baptized. We cannot receive the truth that Jesus laid down His life for us in freedom and that He forgives us all our sins. We hide. We are afraid. In baptism we are claimed for Christ. His divine life is poured into us through the symbolic action of water pouring on our heads. His Cross is on our foreheads (see Rev 7:3). We never need to fear again. Jesus’ own baptism is a theophany event in the three Synoptic Gospels (Mt 3:13-17; Mk 1:9-11; Lk 3:21-22), in which the Father and the Spirit are manifest. Further, Jesus tells Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5). In the same discourse of Paul that is mentioned above, he says, “For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Cor 4:15b-16). His clear teaching throughout the discourse is that it is Christ who baptizes and sends the Holy Spirit — not the minister — and that he has become their spiritual father, in Christ. If we are to imitate Paul, are we not, also, to imitate Christ?
One other glorious thing that is our birthright as the baptized faithful — the other Sacraments. These are the means, instituted by Christ, to continue living in Him. They strengthen us on our journey. Every sacrament that we receive is like a “power-up,” if you will. The power to live in Christ is strengthened and renewed. This now brings me to confession. After we are baptized, of course we fail, everyday, in living out God’s will. Proverbs tells us that even the righteous man “falls seven times and rises again” (Prov 24:16), and the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the means to “renew our wine skins,” so that the Gospel can continue to renew our hearts. There are no greater words for a sinner than the words of absolution: “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.”
Who absolves? Christ. Through the ordained minister, fulfilling the ministry of the Church.
Renew your wine skins! Receive the Word. Everyday!
2uolord 