Juice of the Finest Grapes

~~~ Amos 9:11-15 ~~~ Psalm 85 ~~~ Matthew 9: 14-17 ~~~

"The juice of grapes shall drip down the mountain, and the hills
shall run with it."

This is such a vivid visual. Imagine the juice of grapes...wine pouring down a mountainside. Rivers and streams overflowing with red and purple juice from the finest grapes. What a sight this would be to behold.

I cannot help but think of the outpouring of the precious blood of our Lord.

From the top of Calvary hanging on the cross his blood streamed down for our salvation. Jesus gave us the consecration of his body and blood
at the Last Supper.

He used wine, the juice of grapes, to represent his own blood for us.

He says,  “Drink from it, all of you,for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.

I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day

when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.”

(Matt. 26:27-29)

Jesus himself is both the new wine and the new wineskin.

He is one in the same; he came that we might have new life.

"...People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."

If we remain unchanged when we hear the Lord or when we encounter him among us we are the old wineskins. The old wineskins are worn by use over the years. The old wine skins have lost their capacity for preserving new wine.

The old wineskins are more apt to rupture and spill the new wine.

We are given numerous invitations to become new wineskins...through many of our Sacraments. If we want to  be containers ready to receive the new wine then it seems that we would also want to be like new wineskins as well.

The psalmist sings for God to create a new heart in him; we too can sing to become new wineskins. New wineskins eager to embrace the wine of mercy and compassion.

The new wine poured out for us as the juice of finest grapes

flooding the streams and valleys with love.

So what are you going to do...hold on to the old wineskin and reminisce

or accept the new wineskin with hope and joy?

Freely drink in the new wine given to us by himself as himself of himself.