Saturday of Week 13 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 9:14-17

Today’s reading follows on yesterday’s challenge of Jesus by some Pharisees. On that occasion they asked why Jesus was eating with sinners and outcasts. Now they go one step further and ask why he is eating at all. They put forward the example of John the Baptist and his disciples who used to fast regularly. Jews were only required to fast one day in the year, on the feast of the Atonement. However, like the Pharisees, it seems that John’s disciples used to observe fasts which were not prescribed by the Law in the hope that their extra devotion would bring about an early coming of the Kingdom.

Jesus answers their question in two ways. First he says that people do not fast when they are in the company of the bridegroom. That is a time for celebration. By implication, of course, Jesus is the groom. As long as he is around, it would be inappropriate for his disciples to fast. However, he says a time will come when the groom is no longer with them, and then there will be reasons to fast.

His second answer is more profound and takes the form of two examples. It does not make sense to repair an old piece of clothing with a patch of new cloth. The new cloth, being much tougher, will, under stress, only cause the older cloth to tear. In the second example, he says that it is not wise to put new wine into old wineskins. Wine was kept in containers made of leather. Because new wine was still fermenting and expanding, it needed to be put in new leather bags which were still elastic and could expand with the wine. The old bags would be already stretched, and new wine would only cause them to burst. Then both the wine would be lost and the bags ruined.

What did Jesus mean by these images? He was giving a clear message to his critics. Jesus’ ideas were like new wine or new cloth. They could not be fitted into old containers. People like the Pharisees were trying to fit Jesus’ teaching and his ideas into their ways of thinking, but that would not work.

Clearly, the old garment and the old wineskins represent the elements of Mosaic Law that were to be reinterpreted and “fulfilled” by Jesus’ new teachings. The new cloth and the new wine, then, are the spirit of the Kingdom as proclaimed by Jesus—the new order that Jesus was initiating—what we would now call a paradigm shift, a radically new understanding of how God was to be loved and served.

So John’s disciples wanted to know, for example, why Jesus was not fasting—because in their book, a Jew fasted, and a pious Jew fasted more often. But Jesus did not measure religion by external actions like fasting or keeping other requirements of the Law (such as washing hands before eating). For him, religion was a matter of the inner spirit, as we saw in his deeper interpretations of the Law during the Sermon on the Mount.

Over the centuries the Church has moved its position in many areas as it reaches a deeper understanding of the faith and how it is to be lived in a changing world. Such a movement took place with the Second Vatican Council. It involved much more than external changes (like having the Mass in the vernacular instead of Latin). It involved a whole new way of seeing our faith and our place as Christians in the world.

Even today, there are still people who try to live in the post-Vatican II Church with a pre-Vatican II mentality. It is like trying to squeeze new wine into old wineskins. It is a source of much friction and misunderstanding in many Christian communities. We all have an obligation both to enter fully into the mind of Christ as presented in the New Testament, and to enter into the mind of the Church in this post-Vatican II era.

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Saturday of Week 13 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Amos 9:11-15

Today we have our final reading from Amos. It deals with the happiness that messianic times will bring. It raises a hope underlying Amos’ words, one that runs through the whole Hebrew Testament from Genesis 3:15 onward—that God will bring blessing after judgement, and will not ultimately reject Israel.

After many denunciations of hypocritical religions and unjust treatment of the poor, the prophet concludes on an upbeat note of hope for the future. The promises for the future include the restoration of the Davidic kingdom, material prosperity and the homeland recovered forever. The day is coming when the Lord will raise up again the “booth of David that is fallen”, which had come on hard times and was continually being humiliated by outside conquerors while being unfaithful, idolatrous and corrupt within its own borders.

He says the “booth” (“hut” in some translations) rather than the “house” perhaps to remind us of the humble beginnings of David, the shepherd boy who was picked out by God to succeed Saul as king of God’s people. Or perhaps it is an image of a once proud dynasty fallen on sad times.

And he says God will:

…repair its breaches
and raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old.

That is, it will be as it was in the glorious days of David and Solomon. Then they:

…will possess the remnant of Edom [i.e. what is left of Israel’s bitter enemy] and all the nations who are called by my name…

This will be the extent of the rule of Yahweh’s anointed future King, recalling the many nations surrounding Israel over which David reigned. Somewhere in the future, the ruins of Israel will be rebuilt, unfinished battles over enemies will be completed and former subjects will once again come under the rule of David’s house. It will be a time of prosperity and abundance.

The time is surely coming, says the Lord…

After all the forecasts of destruction, hardship and death, Amos’ final words picture a glorious prosperity like a new Eden, when the seasons will run together so that sowing and reaping are without interval, and there will be a continuous supply of fresh produce, and the hills will run with an abundance of wine, so unlike the times of suffering and invasion. God’s people will return to their own lands from which they will never again be taken.

There is no time scale given for this. It is really a statement of hope and confidence in God’s caring for his people and a call for them to behave in a way that shows they truly belong to him. It is a prophecy which was fulfilled—in a very different way—by the coming of Jesus, David’s descendant as King and Lord, whose Kingdom will never end.

Whatever the circumstances of our lives, we too, look forward to a time of a never-ending happiness when we are totally united with the God for whom we were made. Our hearts are restless until they can find rest in Him.

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