Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Getting Married in Heaven (a.k.a. The Case of the Missing Bride)

One of the first things that we notice about today's strange parable involving a bridegroom and a wedding feast is that the bride is nowhere to be found! Seemingly in their place are ten virgins, five foolish ones and five wise ones. In today's homily we unwrap this parable to discover that the virgins are us and that our ultimate destiny is not our earthly spouse but marriage in heaven with God!

Solemnity of All Saints: My Friends, the Saints

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ (937). If we want to understand how the saints assist us in our journey towards heaven, all we have to do is see how we need our fellow Christians in the Church assisting us on our journey towards heaven. The saints -- who are more alive than we are, being fully alive in heaven -- want our friendship and companionship -- and don't we need it?!?

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Can We Run Out of Love? (a.k.a. A Personal Tribute to JPII)

One of the questions that comes up when Jesus gives his two-fold command to love God with our whole self AND to love our neighbor is if we can run out of love. If I give God most or all of my heart's love, will I have any leftover to love others? Yet Jesus doesn't seem to see any contradiction here... Perhaps a way forward is the witness of the lives of the saints (like Mother Teresa and JPII) who, their hearts being on fire with love for God, are able to spend themselves generously and whole-heartedly in love for their neighbor.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time: We Belong not to the Government but to God

In today's Gospel we see the Pharisees in a surprising collaboration with their political enemies the Herodians in order to entrap Jesus with his words. Ceftly handling their deceitful questioning, he utters his famous maxim: "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." Looking beneath the surface of those words and his invitation to take a closer look at Caesar's image on a Roman coin, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is exposed... as is the Truth that, stamped with the image of God Himself, we belong totally to Him.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Will You Come to the Wedding Feast?

Today's parable can be read on various levels. There is the literal level, in which Jesus indicates to the chief priests and elders that they were invited to the messianic wedding banquet but that they have declined the invitation. So a new Israel will be formed in place of the old. But the "wedding feast" to which Jesus is referring is not simply His marriage to the New Israel, the Church, but it also refers to the place where that marriage is consummated anew: Mass. And to every Mass many are invited to share in the banquet... do we accept the invitation?

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Bearing the Fruit that God is Looking For

Today we have parable #2 that Jesus directs towards the chief priests and the elders. It's setting is a vineyard, and as Jesus tells the parable we can't help but recall the first reading from this week, where the prophet Isaiah describes a very similar vineyard, which is meticulously cared for by its owner and yet bears not good grapes but wild grapes. God meticulously cared for Israel as well, and what was its fruit? The lack of faith of its religious authorities, such as the chief priests and elders to which Jesus directs this parable. And what about us in the New Israel? God has blessed us too and meticulously cared for his Church with its teachings and Sacraments. What is the fruit that we bear?

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Which Son Will We Be?

In today's Gospel we have the beginning of a three-part confrontation between Jesus and the chief priests and elders. The next two Sundays we will hear the next two parables that Jesus tells the religious authorities in rebuke of them. But why does Jesus confront these so-called religious people so frequently in the Gospels? And what does He mean when He says that "tax collectors and prostitutes" will enter heaven before them?

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Getting What We Deserve

In today's Gospel we hear the parable of the workers who all receive the same wage, even though they all work a different number of hours. Understandably the workers who worked for 12 hours complain when they receive the same compensation as those who worked for an hour. So what's Jesus trying to tell us by this parable? The same thing that God tells us in the first reading: That His thoughts and ways are different than our thoughts and ways. We are concerned with fairness--with getting what we deserve. What about God? He is concerned with love--which is not worrying about giving what one deserves but about giving what is good for the person: Being generous in mercy and forgiveness and salvation (which no one of us deserves).

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Why Jesus Expects Us to Forgive

Today Peter asks Jesus, "Must we forgive our brother as many as seven times?" Jesus's response is telling: "Not seven times but seventy-seven times." And then he gives a parable so that we can understand why. Why does Jesus expect us to do something as hard as forgiving our neighbor? Because we ourselves have been forgiven.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: How and Why to Correct Another Person

Today's challenging Gospel reminds us that we are to consider one another brothers and sisters in Christ. Therefore, if someone sins against us or if someone in the community is sinning, then we need to do something about it. The reason we care at all is because love must be the motivating factor of our life. If someone is doing something wrong we must not look the other way but care enough to help them to repent and come back to full Communion in the Church.