Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

In today's Gospel on this last Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jesus gives us a vision of the final judgment and the sheep being separated from the goats. What is the standard that separates those going to eternal life and those going to eternal damnation? It's the corporal works of mercy: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, caring for the sick, clothing the naked, visiting prisoners. Why is this the standard we might ask? Jesus tells us that it's because what we do for the poor and needy, we do for him. So when we choose to serve them or not serve them, we are actually choosing whether to serve Christ or not serve Him. Hence it is on this point that we will be judged.

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!

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?!?

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.

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.

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?

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?

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?

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).

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.