Daily Gospel Reflection for September 6, 2024

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Luke 5:33-39

Some people don’t like it when we change.

Let’s face it: often we ourselves don’t like change all that much.

So we come face to face with a call to put away what no longer works for us (or never really worked to begin with).

We do the scary work of breaking harmful habits, adopting purer thoughts, connecting more honestly in our relationships.

Then we start reaping benefits. We see that change is helpful. We become grateful for the effort we put in.

Then when people we love aren’t as thrilled as we are with our new way of living, they try to devalue us. Maybe our new patterns make them uncomfortable.

Maybe our new attitudes don’t give them as much leeway to act harmfully towards us. Maybe our honesty shines a light on their own guilt.

So in order to avoid the discomfort of looking bad, for all our change, they try to make us look worse.

Jesus knows what it’s like to be devalued. In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees and scribes are comparing His disciples to John the Baptist’s, and by the Pharisees' calculations, Jesus’ disciples are coming up short. Their way of discipleship doesn’t involve the fasting and prayers that the old disciples used.

Jesus responds that, well, things change. Good and bad don’t change, of course. Neither do sin nor virtue. God does not change. However, God made us to live and move and have our being. He made us to grow.

Wineskins grow as the wine ferments, so make sure the wine starts out in skins that haven’t been stretched out yet.

Cloth has a lot of shrinking to do when it’s new, so don’t use it to patch up something too fragile to survive transformation. This world was made for change. Healthy growth cannot be devalued, no matter what discomfort it causes us or the people we want to love.

Ponder:

Where is Jesus inviting me to stretch and grow to make space for His love in my life?

Pray:

Jesus, give us the willingness to stretch and grow, no matter what it costs us, because healthy growth will always lead us more deeply into Your heavenly heart.

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