An excerpt from today’s Gospel of Luke is a parable I like, as it symbolizes our changes in a way almost designed to catch an alcoholic’s attention:

Luke 5:36-39;

And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.

Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.

Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.

(And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.'”

The parallels are clear as relevant to the focus of this blog : the old cloak and old wineskins are our old selves in our practicing alcoholic lives. The new patch and new wine is our new way of living, through our Catholic Faith and spirituality along with whatever recovery program we work.

The new cloak and new wineskin are our new selves, having received the new patch and new wine in our recovery and conversion/reversion to the Church.

The new message will not fit in with the old self. The new self must change to accommodate the new message. You have to be humble, get ourself out of the way, and become teachable. You’re not going to learn anything by clinging to old ways with their old failures.

I’ve written about this before , although the earlier post used the Gospel according to Mark. Check that out, too.

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