Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

Good Friday 2019: I Thirst

I've always been curious about the detail that St. John adds right at the end of his Passion narrative. He tells us that Jesus says, "I thirst." According to the text, just after the soldiers attempt to relieve him with a drink of wine, Jesus dies. Clearly there is something going on here beyond the literal level... 

Holy Thursday 2019: Jesus Shows Us His Heart

There's an interesting detail included by John in his account of the beginning of the Last Supper. Jesus removes his "outer garment". Literally, this would prevent his tunic from being souled as he went about the messy deed of washing the feet of his disciples. But it is a symbol as well: Jesus is peeling away the external, superficial and revealing his interior heart -- what is at his core and center. Everything that happens next during this meal will show us who He is and what is most important to HIm.

Passion Sunday 2019: Jesus Crushed

The use of olive oil in ancient Israel touches every aspect of natural and supernatural life. We ourselves find this echoed in our sacramental life, with blessed oil, especially Sacred Chrism, playing such an important role in communicating God's divine life to us. Is it any surprise that the beginning of the Passion takes place on the Mount of Olives in a garden called Gethsemane, or "oil press". Jesus Himself, in order for us to receive the anointing of the Spirit which makes us sons and daughters of God, must be crushed -- so that the oil of his divine life will flow out of him and into us. Let us commemorate the crushing of Jesus, which begins here in the garden of the "oil press" -- and be grateful -- during this Holy Week.

4/7/19: 5th Sunday of Lent: Misery Finds its Remedy in Mercy

The account of the woman caught in adultery is one of the classic stories of the Gospels. Interestingly, the story does not appear in the earliest, Greek manuscripts of John's Gospel. St. Augustine, who would have read the account in the Latin manuscripts, which all contained it, surmised that the story is left out because Jesus appears as one who is radically, even scandalously, merciful. Even this woman who had sinned so seriously finds mercy in Jesus, who does not condemn her, who simply dismisses her, saying, "Do not sin anymore." The same radical mercy continues today in the Church through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where even the worst sinner, repenting, finds unconditional forgiveness and a new start with God.

3/31/19: 4th Sunday of Lent: Radical Mercy (a.k.a. When God Forgives He Forgets)

Today we hear the beautiful story of the prodigal son, but in order to appreciate the significance of the mercy shown by the father to his son, we must appreciate the offense done to the father by the son. And yet despite the severity of the sin committed, the father seems to forget the offense immediately upon the son's repentance. Such is the forgetfulness of God when we go to confession.

3/24/19: 3rd Sunday of Lent: Allowing Ourselves to be Consumed by God's Love

How do we receive Jesus's urgent plea for us to repent? Do we receive it with indifference or even irritation? Or will we recognize our need for a Savior and welcome Him? Sometimes we might feel like giving our lives totally to God may make us lose something of what makes life interesting or beautiful. That if we allow God to do what He wants with us we will be less ourselves. This is where the image of the burning bush from the first reading is so helpful. The bush is consumed but not destroyed. So it is with us when we allow ourselves to be consumed by the fire of God's love: What is not truly us is burnt off, and we become more perfectly ourselves.

3/17/19: 2nd Sunday of Lent: Should We Have Faith in the Church?

The Book of Hebrews says that Abraham believed because "he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy" (11:11). Our "father in faith" Abraham teaches us in this was that we can trust in the promises God makes to us because of the trustworthiness of the One making the promises. One of the promises that Jesus makes to us is that he will remain with and protect the Church forever: "The gates of hell will not prevail over her" (Matthew 16:18). In spite of terrible scandals, disappointment, and confusion, can we believe in the One who makes the promises? To put our faith in the Catholic Church is not to put our faith in human beings (who are always fragile and weak) but rather in God, who has bound himself to the Church for 2000 years and will do so for another 2000.

3/10/19: 1st Sunday of Lent: The Importance of the Trials and Temptations of Life

Jesus's being led into the trial of the desert where he faced temptation shed light on our own experience of the tests of our life, especially as we realize that it was the Holy Spirit that drives Jesus there. It is God's will for Jesus that he be tested: Both as a proof of Jesus's strength and virtue but also as a preparation for his battling Satan throughout his life. So it is for us and our own tests and trials in life.

3/6/19: Ash Wednesday: The Remedy for our Worldly Attachments

In today's Gospel for Ash Wednesday, we hear Jesus talk about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The Church puts this Gospel before us to invite us to focus on these three things during Lent. For what purpose? Because we human beings get so easily attached to things. So the Church proposes almsgiving as the remedy for our attachment to money and material wealth; prayer (time given to God) as the remedy for our attachment to our time and schedule; fasting as the remedy for our attachment to food, drink, and sensual pleasures.

3/3/19: 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time: What Jesus can Tell us about Facebook and Oprah

Today we hear more from Jesus's challenging teaching in the Gospel of Luke, especially surrounding who will allow to guide us spiritually and what our words reveal about our hearts. Jesus gives us a good examination of conscience as we head into the Lenten season!