Poured Into Fresh Wineskins

JANUARY 15, 2024 - MONDAY
Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time (Green)
Lectionary: 311
CYCLE B - YEAR II

Reading 1
1 Sm 15:16-23

Samuel said to Saul:
“Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
Saul replied, “Speak!”
Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem,
are you not leader of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king of Israel and sent you on a mission, saying,
‘Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction.
Fight against them until you have exterminated them.’
Why then have you disobeyed the LORD?
You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD.”
Saul answered Samuel:  “I did indeed obey the LORD
and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me.
I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen,
the best of what had been banned,
to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal.”
But Samuel said:
“Does the LORD so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the command of the LORD?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission than the fat of rams.
For a sin like divination is rebellion,
and presumption is the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the command of the LORD,
he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”

Responsorial Psalm
50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23

R.    (23b)  To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.”

R.    To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”

R.    To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”

R.    To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

Alleluia
Hb 4:12

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel
Mk 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
 but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

REFLECTION:

Fasting is the next point of contention between Jesus and his opponents. It may not be a major issue in itself but Jesus takes the opportunity to make an astonishing claim: He is the bridegroom! Marital imagery was used in the Old Testament to describe the relationship between Yahweh (bridegroom) and Israel (bride). Here Jesus claims the term (bridegroom) for himself and speaks of his followers as wedding guests. Later Christian thinking will go further and see the Church, the New Israel, as the bride of Christ. Are you comfortable with this kind of imagery? What are its implications?

PRAYER:

Dear Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. You are faithful to your dying promise to remain with us who gather in your name. You enable us to carry one another, especially those who are heavy!