Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Early in The Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter is given a gift by his godfather. He never actually opens it until the very end of the book, and sees that it is something he would have valued greatly and used quite a bit if he had bothered to see what it was. By the time he appreciated his new gift, it was useless. He was so preoccupied with old things that he failed to see the value of the new thing he had been given, and thus ultimately squandered the gift.
Jesus warns us today of just such a fate. He warns us not to pour “new wine into old wineskins,” lest the wineskin burst, spilling and wasting all the new wine. We may forget that we have been given new wine, and in our preoccupation squander it. We have all been like Harry Potter from time to time, getting so preoccupied with what has been that we forget the dazzling newness of what Jesus offers. We must remind ourselves, every day, that Jesus has given us something wonderful and new. Take time each day to consider Christ’s newness in your life, unwrap the gift and name it for what it is, lest it be squandered.