Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

Today's Gospel portrays Jesus angry and overturning the tables outside of the Temple. Once we remember that the Temple was meant to evoke the Garden of Eden, the place that God dwelt in friendship with the man and woman before the Fall, we see that Jesus is acting as the "New Adam" -- casting out anything that would come between God and man. St. Paul reminds us that we, too, are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Any evil that would compromise us and our Communion with God is worthy of ruthless anger -- attacking it until the garden of our heart is once again a place where we can allow God to dwell with us in peace and freedom.

There's a word in today's Gospel description of the Transfiguration event that always catches my eye, and that is the word used to describe what happen to Jesus before the amazed eyes of the disciples: He was metamorphòthe before them. Like a caterpillar changing into a butterfly, Jesus's body was changed before the disciples. Fascinatingly, St. Paul uses the same word to describe our transformation in Christ: "All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being metamorphòumetha into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 3:18). So when the disciples see Jesus metamorphosed before them, they are not only getting a glimpse into the glory of his divinity but also their own destiny in Christ. And ours!

Today's Gospel of the temptations of Jesus is important in a couple ways. First, there is the theological import. Clearly, the symbolism of today's story brings us back to the original temptation in the garden and shows how Jesus is ordering the disorder caused by the first Adam's disobedience. But there is also a practical application for us as well. Seeing Jesus tempted gives us courage in the face of our own temptations, for he is victorious over the suggestions of Satan. As Augustine says, "If we are tempted in Christ, then in Christ we can resist the temptations.

Today's Gospel reading from St. Matthew has Jesus admonishing his disciples to do three things that, for us, establish the program for the Lenten season: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. All these three involve sacrifice of various kinds. Prayer requires that we sacrifice time for God. Almsgiving, our money or other resources. Fasting is the sacrifice of food or other goods. But instead of looking at these sacrifices as the imposition of a burden upon our lives, Jesus wants us to see the invitation to sacrifice as the invitation to be more free from the cares of the world and thus more alive. Let's let our Lenten observance this year lead to greater life!

In today's Gospel we have the powerful story of the healing of the man with leprosy. What do we see time and time again in Jesus's public ministry? People go directly to him in order to be healed. It's important for us to know that Jesus's ministry on earth did not end when he ascended to heaven. Rather, now that ministry continues through the Sacraments of the Church. Going directly to God today does not consist of wondering around with our face looking up to the heavens imploring a hidden God for help. Rather it means doing the same thing that people did 2000 years ago in Galilee: They approached Jesus and confidently asked him for the grace they needed. We can do exactly the same thing when we approach the Sacraments (where we encounter Jesus truly, directly, and personally) with faith.

In today's Gospel we continue to hear of the very beginnings of Jesus's public ministry according to St. Mark. Last week we heard about his first miracle--excising a demon from a man in the synagogue. Today we hear of the second, which immediately follows the first: Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law of her fever. Word of these miracles travels very fast, because, by the end of that very same day, "the whole town" is gathered by Simon's door in order to be healed or delivered by Jesus. This work of healing and restoring that is a trademark of Jesus's public ministry -- bringing order to the disorder -- is exactly the work of the Church. Through the Sacraments Jesus continues to order the disorder: But now not only in Galilee and Judea but throughout the whole world.

Today's 2nd reading, taken from the 7th chapter of St. Paul's 1st Letter to the Corinthians, helps us to reflect on the gift of marriage and the gift of celibacy. Paul begins the chapter by affirming the gift of marriage, and he admits that both are a "charism" -- a free gift given by God to an individual in order to bless them and (through them) the Church. But he also adds, "I wish everyone would be as I am," (meaning: celibate). We unwrap this confusing comment using the text from the second reading to help us.

In this Sunday's Gospel we hear the account of the call of the first apostles from the Gospel writer Mark. We see Jesus call the apostles, and we see their generous response. The apostles themselves will be interiorly changed by the Lord such that they themselves will now attract others to Jesus through their own living the Gospel. This cycle is repeated down through the centuries through the saints and all Christians who seek to make a generous response to Christ's call: He calls, we respond, and He changes us so that our lives become an invitation for others.

In today's Gospel we hear one of the accounts of the call of the disciples. We can learn so much about how God calls each one of us by taking a closer look at how he called his disciples. First, it begins with someone pointing us towards Jesus. Then, after I've opened my heart to him in some way, He makes a personal invitation for me to come closer to him. Third, I must respond to his invitation to go deeper by "remaining" with Him. Finally, having been touched myself by Christ, I must point someone else towards Him -- and the cycle begins again for another person! 

One of the things "revealed" in the mystery of the Nativity is the vocation of the Church to shine the light of Christ and thus attract those who do not yet know Him. This was Israel's mission in the world -- to attract others and so lead them by the light of faith to abandon their old idolatry and to worship of the One, True God. So in the Church, which is the New Israel, how are we doing in this mission? How have we been doing for the past fifty years? Are we growing or declining? When the Church is not radiating the light of Christ and attract others to Him because of her light, we are doing something wrong!