Eucharistic Meditation

Jesus says: “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.” (2:19-22)

Jesus is the bridegroom and Israel, personified in the Pharisees, is the “old garment” and the “old wineskins”. Jesus is the “unshrunk cloth” and the “new wine”. Notice what Jesus is saying must happen: If He is not “shrunk” first, the garment will become torn worse. And if the wineskins are not made new, the new wine (Jesus) will burst them. Jesus must be “shrunk” and Israel must be made “new”. If this does not happen, Israel will be torn (“divided/schism”) and burst (“shed/spilled”). But as the Redeemer of Israel, Jesus comes to stand in Israel’s place. The bridegroom will be taken from His friends when the old garment/Israel does not accept the new garment /Jesus. He will be torn (in their place) and die. Likewise, Jesus will become the old wineskins/Israel and shed His wine/blood in their place. And Jesus uses the very same word in Mark 14: “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many” (Mk. 14:24). His blood/wine will be “shed/spilled” in their place. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and so the Israel that believes will be made into the new wineskins, and the resurrected and ascended Lord, as the new wine/Holy Spirit of God, will fill them.

And here you are two thousand years later, new wineskins all, wineskins that will never be ruined, and here Jesus still gives Himself, gives us His new wine/blood, filling us up to the brim.