18 January 2027 · Latin Rite
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“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”” Mark 2:22
Hebrews begins its great teaching on Christ the High Priest. Every high priest is chosen from among mortals to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, and “is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness.” Christ did not appoint himself; the Father said: “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” And he learned his priesthood in suffering: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears… Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”
In the Gospel people ask why Jesus' disciples do not fast. He answers with images of joy and newness: wedding guests do not fast while the bridegroom is with them; no one sews new cloth on an old garment; “one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” Christ brings something new that needs new hearts. Today the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins: divisions among Christians are old wineskins that cannot hold the new wine of Christ's love. We pray, as Jesus did, “that they may all be one.”
Theme: “New wine into fresh wineskins.”
The suffering High Priest, the joy of the Bridegroom, the call to newness and unity.
“For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.” Psalm 22:24
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” Hebrews 5:7
Apply: Bring your tears to God honestly in prayer.
“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Jeremiah 31:31
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”” Mark 2:22
Apply: Let go of one old habit that resists Christ.
“I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.” Ezekiel 37:22
“that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17:21
Apply: Pray daily this week for Christian unity.
Christ is the eternal High Priest who brings new wine.
Let us become new wineskins, united in him.
Take-home resolution: Do one act of friendship with Christians of another Church during this week.
Dear friends, Hebrews shows us Christ as our High Priest. Every priest is chosen from among people and can deal gently with the weak, because he too is weak. Christ did not make himself a priest; the Father said: you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, and although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered (Hebrews 5:7–8). Our High Priest knows our tears from inside.
In the Gospel people ask why his disciples do not fast. Jesus says the wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; one puts new wine into fresh wineskins (Mark 2:22). Jesus brings something new that needs new hearts.
Today the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins. Our divisions are old wineskins. Let us pray with Jesus, that they may all be one, and let us become new wineskins ourselves. Amen.
Children, Jesus said you cannot pour new juice into an old cracked bottle. Jesus wants to give us new, happy hearts!
Lord Jesus, High Priest who learned obedience through suffering, you pour new wine into our lives. Make our hearts new wineskins, and during this week of prayer make all Christians one, as you and the Father are one. Amen.
Hebrews today looks at Jesus in the days of his flesh, praying with loud cries and tears, and learning obedience through suffering. Mark shows him in the days of his flesh too, the bridegroom among his friends, and he says quietly that the day will come when he will be taken away. Joy and sorrow are not opposed here: the one who is the Church’s joy is the one who suffered for her. The key words are high priest, bridegroom and new.
Setting.
The preacher has just invited his hearers to approach the throne of grace (4:16). Now he explains what kind of priest is waiting there. First he lists what a high priest needs, as seen in the priesthood of Aaron, then he shows how Christ meets those needs in a greater way. Two texts carry the argument, Psalm 2:7 and Psalm 110:4, the psalm the Lectionary gives us today.
Melchizedek, named here for the first time in the letter, will be taken up at length in chapter 7.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness” (5:2)
This applies to priests of the old order, and the preacher will note where Christ differs: he has no sins of his own to offer for (v. 3; 7:27). But every Catholic priest can take the verse to heart. He offers the sacrifice as a sinner among sinners.
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (5:7)
Most readers think of Gethsemane and the Cross, though the text does not name them. It goes further than the Gospels: “loud cries and tears”. But how was he “heard”, since he did die? He was not spared death. He was brought through it, in the Resurrection.
“Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (5:8–9)
Notice the word “obey” in both places. His obedience becomes the source of ours. The one who learned obedience now saves those who learn it from him.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism sees all the troubles and petitions of humanity gathered up in the cry of the incarnate Word on the Cross, and sees the Father answer them, beyond all hope, by raising his Son (CCC 2606). It quotes v. 8 in explaining the prayer “Thy will be done”: how much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience (CCC 2825). The Council of Trent’s teaching that Christ is the source of eternal salvation by his Passion is taken up in CCC 617. Every ministerial priesthood is understood by the Church only as a sharing in his one priesthood (CCC 1544–1545).
Setting.
This is the third of the five controversy stories. Fasting was a serious part of Jewish piety. The Law commanded it on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29–31), and devout people added other days; Luke mentions a Pharisee who fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12). Mark says that John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. The surprise is that those around Jesus, who is plainly a man of God, are not. The question is not hostile, and it is a fair one.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they?” (2:19)
A wedding in that world could last for days and was the happiest occasion a village knew. Nobody fasts at the wedding. By this image Jesus says that the time of waiting has given way to the time of fulfilment.
“The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.” (2:20)
Jesus does not abolish fasting. He places it after his Passion. The Church’s fasting looks to Christ’s absence and to his return. Some have seen in “that day” a reference to the Friday of his death. The Christian fast is not the fast of those who have no bridegroom. It is the fast of those who love him and long for him.
“but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” (2:22)
The sayings warn against patching and pouring: what Jesus brings cannot simply be added to life as it was. They do not say that the old cloak and the old wine were bad. Elsewhere Jesus praises the scribe who brings out of his treasure “what is new and what is old” (Matthew 13:52), and says that he has not come to abolish the law (Matthew 5:17).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism points out that the Lord referred to himself as the bridegroom in this very verse, and that the Church is the bride (CCC 796). The Church keeps the days of fasting and abstinence in this spirit: the Fridays of the year and the season of Lent are days of penance (CCC 1438; Code of Canon Law, cann. 1250–1251). The Church does not read “new wine” as contempt for Israel. Jesus himself came to fulfil the Law, not to abolish it (CCC 577–582).
Why should Catholics fast at all, if the bridegroom has risen and is with us?
He is with us, and yet we still wait to see him. Both are true. That is why the Church does not fast on Sundays, the days of the Resurrection, but does fast at other times. Fasting opens the heart for prayer and for the poor, and it joins us to the Lord in his Passion (CCC 540, 1434, 1438).