“No one puts new wine into old wine skins.”

Jesus often uses concrete and dynamic images to illustrate his point. By drawing from examples of everyday life, Jesus is helping his hearers to connect the Gospel with their ordinary experience.

At the time of Jesus, liquids would be stored in containers made of animal skin which were convenient for transportation. But, after a period of use, the leather would become worn and could easily rupture, especially if filled with unfermented ("new") wine.

Jesus uses this image to teach us about the New Covenant that he inaugurates. Through spiritual blindness, the "wineskins" of the Old Covenant had been rendered incapable of receiving the Good News of salvation. A total transformation was necessary. Jesus, therefore, transmits his New Covenant of grace through the mediation of the Church, the new wineskin.

The new wine that Jesus speaks of is the Gospel. To conform our lives to his message, we must become new wineskins, capable of expanding and being filled with his love.