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| Background: Mark has combined the story of the complaints about fasting with the saying about wineskins because it seemed to him that they made related points: Something new had come upon the earth, a new revelation of the height and the depth of God’s love which made a lot of religious practices from previous times not nearly so important. One could fast if one wanted to. It was a good work, but it was not what Jesus’s good news was about. |
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Story: Once upon a time there was a very stern father who insisted that his children had to keep all the rules he made for them. He had the mistaken notion that he could keep close enough track of the children to make sure that the rules were enforced. They had to sign out when they left the house and sign in when they came home at curfew time – his not the official one. They absolutely could not drink. They could not go to R rated films. They could not date until they were in college. If they broke the rules, he would find out, he promised them, and ground them six months for every broken rule. So the kids decided that poor daddy meant well but he just wasn’t with it. Moreover he was not swift enough to keep track of them after they were twelve, to say nothing after the time they got their driver’s license. To prevent him from undue worry they decided to pull the wool over his eyes – big thick blankets of wool. I won’t tell you how they did it, because I don’t want to give anyone bad ideas, except to say there was a lot of climbing out windows. However, the kids said, we do what we want, which isn’t all that bad anyway, and dad doesn’t worry. Cool. Later when they were out of college they told their father all the tricks they had pulled. He was astonished. Well, he said, I guess it’s impossible to keep track of kids all the time these days. Right they said wineskins for grammar school kids don’t work for high school kids.
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Psalm 116:9-10,15-19 9 I walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
Gospel Mk 9:2-10Jesus took Peter, James, and Johnand led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.
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Catholics and the Struggle with Their Church The survey of the archdiocese, which Father Greeley describes as "a very complicated place" demographically, asks some difficult questions, and finds some interesting truths.  Editorial
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