When I had a profound encounter with the Lord through the Holy Spirit and had a new found desire to read His Word I turned to two seniors in the faith to guide me on where I should start. One was an elderly leader in the Charismatic movement who has passed on, and the other an established Catholic speaker invited to give us a talk in our Parish who has since left the Catholic Church to pursue his faith in some other Christian denomination. They both shared with conviction the exact same thing, “Don’t even bother with the Old Testament, just concentrate wholly on the New Testament which is more than enough!” Who was I to question these esteemed leaders of the faith? Still it unsettled me even then, for whether Old or New aren’t they both the inspired Word of God? Was I not meant to take their guidance literally? Was the guidance received taken out of context somehow?
Well as I grew deeper in love with Word of God, I find this statement holds true “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.” A variation would be the “New Testament is concealed in the Old, and the Old is revealed in the New” Both Old and New point us in the same direction and that is to the way, the truth and the life; Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who came to make all things new. To draw all of us unto Himself and to the heart of God our Heavenly Father.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
First reading
Amos 9:11-15 ·
I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel
It is the Lord who speaks:
‘That day I will re-erect the tottering hut of David,
make good the gaps in it, restore its ruins
and rebuild it as it was in the days of old,
so that they can conquer the remnant of Edom
and all the nations that belonged to me.’
It is the Lord who speaks, and he will carry this out.
‘The days are coming now – it is the Lord who speaks –
when harvest will follow directly after ploughing,
the treading of grapes soon after sowing,
when the mountains will run with new wine
and the hills all flow with it.
I mean to restore the fortunes of my people Israel;
they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them,
plant vineyards and drink their wine,
dig gardens and eat their produce.
I will plant them in their own country,
never to be rooted up again
out of the land I have given them,
says the Lord, your God.’
Gospel
Matthew 9:14-17
When the bridegroom is taken from them, then they will fast
John’s disciples came to him and said, ‘Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunken cloth on to an old cloak, because the patch pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; if they do, the skins burst, the wine runs out, and the skins are lost. No; they put new wine into fresh skins and both are preserved.’
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