New Covenant - The underlying meaning is more important than the act.

Today's Gospel Reading (Luke 5,33-39)


³³ They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
 ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? ³⁵ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
 ³⁶ He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. ³⁷And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. ³⁸ No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. ³⁹And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

The "New Covenant"

Today, facing the Pharisaic ritualism, the "new wine" brings us
to the panorama of the "renewed" Covenant of God with men.
Before Israel’s disloyalty, God reiterated the "Covenant", and finally,
Christ sealed it in its "new" and "definitive" form.
The Sinai Covenant was centered on two elements:
1. the "Blood Covenant" (the sacrificial blood from animals
was sprinkled on the altar —God’s symbol— and on the people);
2. God’s word and the promise of Israel’s obedience.

This promise was broken by Israel’s "idolatry" and a number of
repeated noncompliances, as shown in the Old Testament.
The rupture seemed unavoidable when God sent His people i
nto exile and the Temple was thrown open for destruction.
But then, the hope of the "New Covenant" emerged,
not based on the always fragile human loyalty,
but on an inviolable obedience: that of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

—O Jesus, as a servant, You assume my disobedience in your
"obedience unto death". Give me a "new" heart!