The first reading today explains who Jesus Christ is through the lens of creation. These words sound very familiar. We say many of the same words when we pray the Nicene Creed during mass. Our Creed is based in scripture so this shouldn’t really surprise us. The scope of the first reading is beautiful. Jesus is the flesh and blood image of our God whom we can not see. God must have loved us a great deal to send his son to us in a visible, tangible, human way. A way we could better understand who he was, through the flesh and blood presence of His son. All things are under Christ’s power and are subject to him, even the thrones and dominions. That is why a priest that does exorcisms will drive a demon out of a possessed person, by using the name of Jesus Christ. The very name of Jesus Christ has power and authority on earth and in heaven. We too, should invoke the name of Jesus when we undergo strong temptations or trials. Jesus Christ’s spoken name has power.
Jesus Christ is the head of the body, the Church. We should always remember this because human beings are just that, human beings. We are all susceptible to mistakes and sins and every single one of us have weaknesses and our clergy are also not exempt from this. It is so very wrong to blame the Church for one person’s actions though, or even a group of people’s actions. A human body can injure their hands or feet but it isn’t the rest of the body’s fault that they are injured.
Jesus Christ is the lifeblood of the Church and isn’t that a wonderful thing? People from many other religious denominations often put down the Catholic faith, but our faith was founded by and through Jesus Christ for over 2,013 years. All other Protestant denominations have only been in existence anywhere from 1 year to about 400 years maximum. The next time a Protestant starts to put down our religion and you don’t know how to respond to it, you might remember this. How long has their christian denomination been in existence? Something held the Catholic church together for over 2,013 years and that was Jesus Christ himself. Jesus originally founded our church and continues to be it’s lifeblood to this very day.
Jesus knew what he was doing all along, when he founded the Holy Catholic Church. No one else understood it at the time, but he did. In today’s gospel Jesus was asked why did John’s disciples and even the Pharisees disciples fast and pray, but not his? Jesus wasn’t so strict on his disciples because they needed to simply enjoy the joy of being with him. He uses the illustration of a bridegroom and wedding guests to make his point. Newly wed couples throw a party for their family and friends too and everyone forgets about their normal daily life for a while to simply enjoy the happy occasion. Actually the first year a couple is married is often called the honeymoon phase and is usually a very happy period of their lives, sometimes the most happiest of their memories together and this is good. A good start to married life is full of joy, peace and happiness. Days filled with love. A bank full of love that helps to insulate a couple from the struggles, trials and problems that will most certainly lie ahead.
In the last verse of the gospel, Jesus says “But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says ‘The old is good.'” Now, how could we not think of an older couple attending a wedding celebration that looks at the newlywed couple and are glad they don’t have to do it all over again? The newlyweds haven’t had their babies yet, with all the growing pains and trials that lay ahead, especially when they still have so much to learn in life themselves.
Hopefully, all newly wed couples will remain grounded in their Catholic faith throughout their marriage and allow Jesus to be the new wine that fills their lives with love. It takes three to make a marriage work and in the worst of times, he may be the glue that keeps them together. The old wine of married life is richer and more full bodied. It is a treasure to be enjoyed late in life as well. There is nothing cuter than seeing an elderly couple go on a walk together and they are still smiling at each other, glad to be in one another’s presence.
The “new wine” Jesus spoke of in the gospel though, is His Church which was still in the newlywed stage. Our Catholic faith has grown in richness throughout our history, and the church may have been torn, but it never burst at the seams or been destroyed. It will remain until the end of time, because Christ himself is the wine of the church, the very lifeblood of our faith.
