Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

10/29/17: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Do You Love God? Then Prove It.

Today's Gospel reminds us of the two most important things according to Jesus: Love for God and Love for Neighbor. It is very easy to say that we love God and others. But how do we prove it???

10/22/17: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Only Thing that will Satisfy a Lover

In today's Gospel, the Pharisees try to lure Jesus into answering a trick question: Is it lawful to pay the census tax? Whether he answers yes or no, some in his audience will be offended and will spread bad news about him. But he deftly responds with a "both-and": "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." So our question for today is, "What is God's?" We soon realize that everything is God's, and like a jealous lover, God demands this "everything" from each one of us and will not be satisfied until He has what He wants.

10/9/17: Encountering Jesus: The Call to Holiness

Today's first talk to the Catholic school teachers of the Diocese of New Ulm. God calls us all to holiness. As we become holy, we become like God... And then we ourselves become fishers of men! Sorry for the audio quality. It is really great when I am standing right in front of the podium. :)

10/9/17: Encountering Jesus: The Four States of Life (a.k.a. Marriage Matters)

In Talk #2, I talk about how God calls a person firstly to holiness, secondly to one of four states of life: marriage, priesthood, religious life, or the generous single life, and finally, to a particular career or work. Sorry about the audio problems in the first 10 minutes of the talk!

10/8/17: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Intoxicating Effect of the Spirit

Today's Liturgy gives us two parables that use vineyards as the setting, which means that I get to preach about one of my favorite things: WINE! As wine cheers the heart and elevates a celebration, so is the Church supposed to have an "intoxicating" effect on the culture around us... But do we?

9/24/17: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Jesus and his Strange Parables

Today's parable is very challenging, as it puts into tension our own conception of justice and mercy. But it is also so strange... Why does the landowner go five times to seek help? Why didn't he just send his foreman to do that task? Why does he act in such an inflammatory way by so publicly rewarding those who only worked for one hour? We dig deeper into today's strange parable so we can find the deepest meaning and application for our lives.

9/17/17: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Why Must We Forgive?

In today's homily, Jesus challenges us once again by presenting us with a parable in which a man is forgiven a huge debt, one which he would never have been able to repay. How does the servant respond to the incredibly generous forgiveness he receives? By finding a fellow servant who owed him a much smaller amount and having him thrown in jail. The point is that this is exactly what we do when, having received God's forgiveness for our own sins, we refuse to forgive another.

9/10/17: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Love Means Saying What the Other Might not Want to Hear

In today's challenging Gospel, Jesus gives us step by step instructions regarding how to confront another person when we see something wrong. To do something about it is loving! It is not love to be indifferent about how the other lives their life. But Jesus helps us here ... and helps us to see how the activity of the Church also happens in this context of love.

9/3/17: 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: God Invites Us to Accept Suffering

In the Gospel Jesus has some very strong words for Peter: "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me!" What prompted this rebuke from Jesus? It was Peter's insistence that the Messiah would not suffer. But this was not God's plan. God's plan was one of love, which implies suffering: willing the good of the other, which always requires me to sacrifice. It was true for Jesus, and it is true for us!

8/27/17: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time: How We Know that What the Church Teaches is What Christ Taught

Today's Gospel is astonishing. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, tells Peter, a weak and sinful man, a simple fisherman, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." He says this after giving him "the keys to the kingdom of heaven." Jesus makes Peter the head of his church on earth with full authority to act in his absence. So this is where our confidence comes from as Catholics that what the Church teaches -- protected by the Holy Spirit through the Office of Peter -- is what Christ taught. What a great mercy of God -- that I don't have to "figure out" for myself what is true. How liberating it is that I myself do not have to be the arbiter of what is true but that I can receive the truth through the One who is Truth in Person: Through the voice of the Church who has the authority and mandate to speak on behalf of Christ.