Prohibition on Patches (01/19/2026)

My father was one of 10 sons. His family struggled financially, especially after his father suffered a stroke when my father was still a toddler. And then the depression came and made things even more difficult for my grandmother who was trying to raise her sons, care for her invalid husband, and run a farm with children as her only workers. My father remembered the good from those years, but he also remembered the difficulties. And when he became a father, he prohibited patches on his children’s clothes.

I can remember the conversations more than once growing up as my father shared his humiliation as a boy when the other children teased him and his brothers because of the patches on their clothing. “No patches!” my father would say, and we all knew he was serious about that prohibition.

When I read the gospel reading for today where Jesus spoke of not placing new cloth on an old garment, I immediately thought of my father’s prohibition. It wasn’t the first time I realized that my father and Jesus thought a lot alike. But as I pondered the gospel message and thought of my father, a great and loving father, and the Father Almighty, whom Jesus revealed to us through His teachings and deeds, I tried to find the commonality. Jesus wasn’t concerned about cruelty of comparison by unloving bystanders as my father. After a long analysis, I finally began to see the commonality between my father’s perspective and the perspective of the Almighty Father.

When we find a change is necessary, start fresh, don’t try to patch. And I thought of my own spiritual journey and those times when I realized that I needed to change, to turn toward the LORD and abandon the path I’d been on. A patch is saying “I’ll try to do better” but not really changing. The LORD calls us to real change – not patches. If I find that something is leading me from the LORD such as a habit, I need to set that habit down, throw it away, and try to establish a totally new habit in its place.

If anger is my habit when criticized, I can’t just try different responses hoping that it will mask my anger. I must pray to the Spirit for help and when I am criticized, I need to be a new person, recreated, made new in Christ’s love and light.  Or if gambling is my vice, I must set it down, and when I am tempted, turn to the Spirit for help in living as Christ recreated me, and stay away from the casino rather than still going but trying to set a limit.

If we truly believe in Christ and truly love Him, we open ourselves to the new person we become in Him. And if we find that there are still things that block our conversion or connection, it is up to us to turn, to allow Him to “recreate” us so that we might more perfectly follow Him and love Him. We won’t try to hang onto the very thing that impedes our relationship.

And when as Christ’s disciples we find ourselves in a world that isn’t what we hoped for or believe to be what Christ desires, instead of praying for new leaders or new laws, let us pray for the LORD to change us, to grow us, so that we might be His instruments in this world.

My dad would be proud of me. I don’t have that many clothes, but there isn’t a patched garment in my closet. And this morning I pray to Christ my Savior that He is pleased with me because I’ve learned that when things need to change, I should start with myself rather than the rest of the world.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.