Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

Today's readings are about the call and consequences of prophecy. God speaks to every baptized person through the Church and in a personal way in their heart, and their job is not to keep the message to themselves but to share it and live it. This will always bring about opposition in our lives. But God is with us and he will never leave those who are faithful to Him.

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christ: The Body and Blood of the Lord. Today we give thanks for the great gift of the Eucharist, which Jesus gives us as a Memorial of his love for us. Because I don't have a public Mass today, instead of a homily here is a personal reflection on the Eucharist.

This weekend was ordination weekend in the Diocese of New Ulm, and we are so blessed to have two new priests in our diocese. So this week a bonus episode: A talk I gave for RACE Sunday last November at Holy Redeemer in Marshall. I'm so grateful for God's calling me to the priesthood!

It's helpful for us to notice the obvious difference between the disciples pre-Pentecost and post-Pentecost. They go from fearful men to bold and courageous witnesses of the Resurrection. This leads us to a question: If we have received the same Spirit, then shouldn't this be our experience too? Today we talk about what it feels like to let the Holy Spirit live within us... and what He can do with us if we let Him.

The coronavirus pandemic has turned the world and our lives upside-down. In the midst of such loss and struggle, what are we to make of the promise of Jesus to be with us "always, even until the end of time"?

Today Jesus once again gives words to the greatest mystery: the relationship between the Father and himself the Son and their relationship to the Holy Spirit. Jesus is telling us about the inner life of God! And, perhaps evening more amazing and mysterious, how he is inviting us to be participants -- through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us -- in the life of God. Our first reading today tells us why this is possible and why the Holy Spirit's indwelling is an objective fact: Because we have been baptized and confirmed. This is what confers the Spirit. So even if we haven't been living life as if the Holy Spirit were living within us, let's begin now.

Today our Gospel is from the beginning of Jesus's long Last Supper discourse which takes up chapters 14-17 of John's Gospel. We might call this Jesus's "last words" to his disciples, when he shares with them from the depth of his heart. And so we have to take it seriously when so much of Jesus's focus in this final discourse is on God's Fatherhood. Today on this Mother's Day, we focus on the Fatherhood of God -- which every father and mother needs.

On this 'Good Shepherd' Sunday we are invited to meditate on Jesus the Good Shepherd, and I am brought immediately to the parable that Jesus tells about the shepherd who has a hundred sheep and who is willing to leave the other ninety-nine if one gets lost. This says much about the heart of the Good Shepherd -- that he doesn't need to analyze the risks involved before going out to seek and save the lost one but does it without hesitation. What if we to see our own lives with God in this way -- not so much our seeking for Him, but His seeking for us! Then we would realize that living the Christian life is not about our struggle to find God but about allowing ourselves to be found by Him.

Today we hear the magnificent Gospel passage about the encounter between Jesus and the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The passage begins by telling us that the disciples are leaving Jerusalem for Emmaus. This should get our attention because throughout most of Luke's gospel Jesus is going towards Jerusalem. That these disciples are going away from Jerusalem tell us what their spiritual and psychological reality is: Discouraged by what has happened to Jesus, they are moving away from the place where there is communion with God. But in his compassion Jesus does not allow them to by themselves but chooses to walk with them on their road of discouragement. But because their eyes are "downcast", they are unable to recognize that it is Jesus -- God in person -- who has come to walk with them. Only when he breaks the bread for them do they finally recognize him. May we lift our downcast eyes to see not only earthly things but also the heavenly reality: Jesus who comes to walk with his disciples in their sin and suffering and to lead us back to Jerusalem, back to communion with God!