Old Is Gold

Loving the old things

 Luke 5:33-39

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

             Have you ever played “dress up”?  First of all, who can tell me what that is?  It’s where small children put on their parents’ clothes.  Girls walk around in their mom’s high heels like they’re walking on stilts, trying not to fall over!  Boys wear their dad’s ties and cowboy hats, which cover their whole heads!  Now, why do small children do that?  Well, obviously, because it’s fun to do!  But they also do that because they love their parents, and want to be like them when they grow up.  They not only want to wear the same clothes, but they hope to have the same strengths and talents.  Even though those parents are sooo OLD, the children love the old ways, and so they play “dress up.”

            I like to tell people that living in Fort Smith is like going back in time to 1985.  Have you noticed that?  The clothes people wear, the cars they drive, even people’s hairdos and the music on the radio is all from the 1980’s!  It’s like people in Fort Smith are playing dress up from the 1980’s!  But why do you think they are doing that?  Well, because we love the old!  Maybe everything that’s “latest and greatest” isn’t so great?  Sometimes, old is gold.

            Today’s gospel was a little confusing for me; I am not exactly sure what Jesus means.   But here’s one thing he said that struck a chord with me.  He said: “Anyone who drinks old wine doesn’t like new wine.  That person says, ‘the old is good’.”  Jesus is teaching us that some things that are old are good, and we should hang on to them.  We don’t have to play dress up, but we should love the old.  Sometimes, old is gold.

            Boys and girls, we Catholics love old stuff, don’t we?  Sometimes, we even play dress up!  Remember Fr. Eddie?  He wore a long, black robe called a “cassock.”  He was telling us, “old is gold!”  Who’s the oldest person of all?  God is.  Old is gold!  What are some other old things we love as Catholics?  Look at our church – it was built in 1901, which is the year Sr. Sarto was born.  The old is gold!  Many people become Catholic because they realize our religion goes all the way back to the time of Jesus.  The old is gold!  This is why we should have so much love and tenderness and patience for our grandparents and all the elderly.  Because the older people get, the more golden they become!

             You know, even what we do in the Mass is very old.  The priest wears what looks like a dress, the altar servers wear robes and carry candles.  We read from old, dusty books.  People bring forward bread and wine, which we’ve been doing for 2,000 years.  Actually, the Jews did for 1,800 years before Jesus!  We do that because we Catholics love the old stuff!  Listen again to Jesus words today: “And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘the old is good’.”  The old is not just good; it’s gold.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!