The first reading today is the wonderful prophecy from Amos – that indicates that the Lord will raise up the "fallen hut of David" – after the Babylonian Captivity. The people shall be restored and the cities rebuilt, and the mountainside gardens shall once again be planted which will provide rich foods and a good harvest.
This is comforting to know for a people who had wandered so far away from God – and incurred his justifiable anger and retribution! But now, he once again shows his constant, never-ending and faithful mercy and compassion. Whenever any turn to him, he is ready to receive and to forgive and to strengthen. Apparently, the people were – at this point – ready to receive the gifts of restoration that God had in store for them.
In the gospel passage Jesus has a conversation with the disciples of John the Baptist. They want to know why they have to fast, while his disciples don't have to. Jesus point, in responding, is that "new understandings are on the way" – a "fuller understanding" "a richer understanding" a "more complete understanding" of a lot of things: and that they needed to prepare their minds and hearts to receive them: thus, the reference to the cloth-patching and the wineskins.
The one who had the information for the new understandings was Jesus: and so those closest to him: his own disciples: simply were invited to avail themselves of the nearness of the information; but John's disciples, who were still in a sense at a distance readying themselves: needed to purify their minds and hearts in readiness by fasting and works of charity – so that when the message finally reached them, they would be able to fully grasp it.
May we, this day, be among those who count ourselves very near indeed to Jesus (especially as we are near to him in the words of this Mass and his Eucharistic Presence) – and receive all that he has to share with us – all kinds of newer, and richer, and deeper understanding about him, his Father, their Spirit and how everything all fits together – and how we can easily live it out. When Jesus speaks: let us listen – for he is our Shepherd, he is our Teacher, he is our Lord, he is our Brother!
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me!
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