Old and new

The passage from the Gospel of Luke which concludes the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today ends with the praise of the old things. This is preceded by some warnings about mixing new wine and old wine skins. Friar Jude Winkler comments on this in the light of the Jewish traditions which prohibit mixing. The first letter of Paul to the Corinthians contains, according to Winkler, some teaching about the new proto-Gnostic ideas which have been promoted in the community. These ideas are based on the concept that evil is from the material and the flesh. The experience of God, in this philosophy is entirely spiritual as knowledge through spirit. The preaching of Paul or any human then, is inadequate and likely contaminated with human error. Paul refutes judgement of the value his life, and the lives of all people by human assessors. Friar Jude emphasizes understanding that the eyes of God see the hidden aspects of our personality, gift of the Creator, with which we live. The mercy of God for which the Church offers the Collect prayer today is ours to have and to extend to others with the appreciation that we cannot know the depths of their “old” being.