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The Christian ought always to be joyful as one who goes to a wedding, Pope Francis said in his remarks following the Gospel at Mass Friday in the Domus Sanctae Marthae chapel in the Vatican.
He stressed the need to overcome the temptation to put the novelty of the Gospel into old wineskins, and repeated that the Sacrament of Matrimony is the image of Christ’s union with the Church, Vatican radio reported.
“The Christian is fundamentally joyful. …[To be sure], there are truly moments of crucifixion, moments of pain – but there is ever that profound peace of joy, because Christian life is lived as a celebration, like the nuptial union of Christ with the Church.”
Using the wedding feast metaphor, he stressed the newness of the Gospel, saying, “we will always be tempted to cast this newness of the Gospel, this new wine, into old attitudes ... It is sin, we are all sinners. Only recognize it: ‘This is a sin.’ Do not say this goes with this. No! The old wineskins cannot hold the new wine.”
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