January 20 2025: Bible Verse of the Day – New Wine in Old Wineskins – Matthew 9:14-17, Luke 5:33-39, Mark 2:18-22 – Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” – Matthew 9:14-17, Luke 5:33-39, Mark 2:18-22
Catholic Readings For Today
Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Bible Verse of the Day Reflections
Today, Jesus is teaching us why we should shed off our old ungodly ways and habits in order to accommodate the new ways He teaches us through His Holy Gospel.
The disciples of John had asked Jesus why they, together with the Pharisees fasted while His disciples did not. Jesus answered this question in two ways;
- Because Jesus was still with them, His disciples did not need to fast but when he would be gone back to The Father, His disciples would need to fast.
- After He was gone and the disciples began to fast, they would not fast like the Pharisees did because they fasted in a hypocritical way that was not appealing to God. The disciples of Jesus would need to fast the way Jesus taught them.
The mode of fasting that Jesus had taught was, fasting without show-off, that is, not showing everybody that you are fasting, not wearing sack clothes or being gloomy to people to show that you are really suffering.
Let us dissect this. Old wineskins are the people’s hearts that are governed by the old, arrogant, unpleasant, and ungodly ways and habits like those that the Pharisees had.
The new wineskins are the people’s hearts that have accepted the new ways that Jesus was preaching about. The new wine is the Good News and Teaching by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus says that in that state of show-off and arrogance that the Pharisees were, they would not fast in the right way as Jesus wanted because their way of life was not compatible with His teachings.
They would not mend their bad ways of life by just fasting. To mend their bad ways, they had to completely transform and become new wineskins, so that the Good News from Jesus could start to manifest in them.
Let us, therefore, first and foremost turn into new wineskins so that our tithe, offerings, prayers, and fasting can be acceptable to God the Almighty.
Prayer: God Almighty, help us to undergo metanoia – a complete change in our way of life – so that Your teachings can manifest in us and help proclaim Your Gospel to the whole world. Jesus, I love you. Amen.
Bible Verse of the Day in Pictures
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