Daily Devotional

New wine is good. Old wine is also good. The problem is using old wineskins to store new wine or vice versa. This parable points to the importance of timing. Your plans may be perfect, but if it isn’t the right time, you will pour new wine into an old wineskin. For instance, Amos’ prophecy of a time of restoration for Israel came hundreds of years later in Jesus Christ. That was the right time, neither earlier nor later.

The life of St. Thomas, whom we celebrate today, is a typical example of a saint who was just like you and me. He had every reason to doubt the resurrection of Christ because nothing like that had ever happened before. However, when Jesus showed Himself to Thomas, he fell to his knees and worshipped Jesus, saying, “My Lord and My God!”

While the friends of the paralytic made their faith visible, the scribes at that gathering felt that Jesus was blaspheming. For them, Jesus was a man trying to make himself equal to God. These scribes dared not voice their thoughts, but Jesus could hear them. We may pretend about our faith, but we cannot fool God; He knows when our presence in the Church is a formality.