Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 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 unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 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.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
God, I am very tired and you seem so distant. My soul creaks more than my knees do. As much as I would love to dance with the bridegroom before he leaves, I don’t have the energy to even get up from my chair. I am a very old wineskin. If you tried to pour your new wine of love and joy into me, I would surely burst at the seams. Like the Pharisees I am going through the motions of my faith, but not really living it. Lord, this is when I need you the most. When you seem so far away, and I just don’t care.
God, please help me.
—Peg Anderson, a partner in Chicago’s Fox Swibel law firm, is on the board of the Ignatian Spirituality Project.
Glory be to the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be forever. Amen.
