Saturday of Week 13 – Amos 9:11-15 Ps 84:9,11-14; Matthew 9:14-17

After all, this dispute concerning the difference between John’s and Jesus’ disciples was not about the covenant with Abraham or the ten commandments. Nobody questioned the Law given in Sinai. It was about secondary matters, exalted to the level of principles. It is also difficult not to notice the questioning of values. They are fasting. Read into that, they are better, more pious, more zealous.

Clinging on to what we are used to is sometimes like a blindfold. A person is held in one place. Pilgrimage becomes stagnation. A person holds on to a once-learned examination of conscience, prayers remembered from childhood, and sometimes quite venerable devotions. New forms of prayer are looked at with suspicion, astonishment at women having feet washed on Holy Thursday, and even worse, bringing Christmas trees into the church. As if God could not and did not want to speak in a new language to us about new times. As if He had to pour new wine into old wineskins.

Lord, may we always find joy and goodness in knowing, loving, and serving You.