Homily for Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Lent

Throughout His ministry, Jesus made brilliant use of imagery to describe what is important in life. In all three of the synoptic Gospels, He compared His ministry to new wine, then said that this new wine required new wine-skins, otherwise the skins would burst. In other words, the traditional way of doing things would no longer be enough. Yet, Jesus also had great respect for tradition, His Jewish tradition, and the Scriptures of His people nourished and inspired Him.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared that He had come not to abolish the Law and the prophets but to complete them. He did not pretend to be starting from scratch. There was much in Jewish tradition that He valued, but He wanted to bring that tradition to a greater richness and fullness; He came to renew Israel’s tradition, not to toss it aside. His attitude suggests that we don’t simply discard our religious tradition, but neither should we idolize it into a set of absolute rules and dogmas.

The Church is always in need of reform and renewal. The work of renewal will always involve honoring what is best in our tradition by allowing its rich potential to be fully realized and being open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to guide us in ways that are new.+