Friday of 22nd Week, Year II: reflection
Theme: Don’t taint the new life in Christ with the old life of sin
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Reading: Lk 5:33-39
In his second letter to the Corinthians (5:17),
St Paul teaches that “anyone who is in Christ Jesus is a new creature: old
things have passed away; the new has come.” This lesson from St Paul quickly
brings to our mind what Jesus told the Scribes and Pharisees in today’s gospel.
He told them that no one puts fresh wine in an old wineskin; instead, new wine
should be put in a new wineskin. And that no one tears a piece from a new
garment and puts it upon an old garment.
Dear friends, what does this teach us? What do
we understand by this emphasis on not mixing the old and the new?
We must understand that whoever has been
baptized has been buried and risen with Christ. This means he has given up the
old life of sin, he has been redeemed from the old life and has assumed a new
life of grace. Thus, this new life cannot be lived according to the pattern or
standard of the old life from which it was redeemed, but rather according to
the values and standards of the one who redeemed it from the old, namely Christ,
the giver of new life.
As a life redeemed from old life of sin and
dominion of darkness, and renewed by the blood of Christ, the Christian life
compels anyone who truly wants to live it not to do so by allowing the
standards of the old life of sin to dictate his choices and actions; he should
no longer allow the old life of sin to taint this new life. A Christian is no
longer to live in accordance with the standards that derive from living as if
life in this world is all that exists, because such logic belongs to the old
life of sin. He should rather live for Jesus, who died for us and was raised
again; his life should be a lamp shining in the dark.
May God’s grace lead
and direct you steps this Friday. Amen
Fr Isaac C, Chima
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