LIFE’S ONLY RULE
The
Gospel today seems to suggest that the new is always better than the
old: “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one; no one
pours new wine into old wineskins.” While there is a grain of truth to
that, it is not always necessarily the case. At the end of the same
Gospel, we even read: “No one who has been drinking old wine desires
new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
We affirm one great truth in this passage from Luke: both old and new are good. And the greater truth is that we can make the old and the new work for us. How do we do that? God, in His infinite wisdom and power, has
given us the capacity to share in His divine love. He holds all
creation together in Himself. Every little act of kindness we do to
others, given our faculties to decide based on love, become our humble
participation in the love of God.
In the pious devotions of those belonging to the earlier generations —
like regular Benediction and praying of the rosary — which the younger
ones do not as conscientiously adhere to today, we see how the old is
good. In the new ways of proclaiming the faith — evangelization through
the use of mass media, especially social networking — among the young,
which the older ones consider too secular, we bear witness to how the
new is good.
Our life, as it is, is an ongoing process of combining the best
practices of generations, both old and new. We come to enjoy life’s
fullness because of the lessons of the past and the promises of the
future, which bring to life what we experience today as life unfolds.
Consciously, we are called to value the old ways and be critical of the
new. We do not have fast rules on life, except this: “Love one another
as I have loved you.” And the Lord Himself lived by this only rule. Fr. Erick Y. Santos, OFS
REFLECTION QUESTION: How do you discover some sense of newness in your everyday relation with the Lord?
Thank You, Lord, for the gift of the old faith and the opportunities to renew my ties with You. Amen.
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