First Friday Gospel: Parable of Wineskins (September 5 2025)

First Friday Gospel Reading & Reflection
September 5 2025
Parable of Wineskins

Luke 5:33-39

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
"The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers,
and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same;
but yours eat and drink."
Jesus answered them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast
while the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
then they will fast in those days."
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.'"

Reflection:

The Parable of the Wineskins is a powerful lesson for Christians about growth and transformation in their daily walk with God. It teaches us that God's new way—the grace, freedom, and spiritual renewal found in Christ—won't fit into our old ways of thinking or living.

Embracing the New Way
In the parable, the new wine is a symbol for the liberating power of the Gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit. The old wineskins represent our rigid, legalistic habits and mindsets. We can't simply "patch" new beliefs onto our old, unchanging lives. God wants to do something completely new inside us, and that requires us to become flexible and open.

A Call to Personal Renewal
For Christians, this parable is a call to personal renewal. A true relationship with God isn't about adding new rules or rituals to our old routines. It's about a complete spiritual change from the inside out. We have to be willing to let go of our old, self-centered ways so that God can fill us with His grace and transform our lives.

The parable reminds us that every day, God is ready to pour His new life into us, but we must be ready to receive it with a flexible heart and an open mind.