Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.

For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

A prayer that we can pray to unite our hearts to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

"Heavenly Father, I unite my heart to the altar wherever Mass is being celebrated at this moment. Please make of my own heart an altar so that I can offer myself to You there, in union with Jesus's self-offering on the Cross. As Jesus offers His Body and Blood to You, let me offer myself along to You with Him. Amen."

Every day we can make a Act of Spiritual Communion so that we receive the grace that we would receive if we were able to receive Holy Communion:

My Jesus, I believe that Youare present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this momentreceive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.

Amen.

When we read from John's Gospel, it's helpful for us to know that there are layers of symbolism found in nearly every line. In today's Gospel, the story of the Samaritan Woman, the woman's going to the well in order to draw water is literally for the purpose of quenching her physical thirst. But symbolically her physical thirst represents a deeper thirst within her: Her thirst to be known and loved. It's no unnecessary detail but also deeply symbolic that, after her close encounter with Jesus at the well, she leaves her water jug there. Her deep thirst for life and meaning quenched, she no longer has need of the jug. May we all find in Jesus the living water who desires to quench that for which we ultimately thirst!

In the account of the Transfiguration of Jesus, the Gospel writers stress a couple things: (1) That the light comes from Jesus (rather than shining on Jesus as if from the outside); and, (2) That the light comes precisely through (and not despite) his humanity. And such He wants it to be for us. Our humanity is not obstacle for God's grace but rather a conduit. He wants to so fill our hearts with the divine light that we become more and more the light of the world.

Today's First Reading brings us back to the beginning of creation to the story of the original blessing (God's generous creation of and providence over the man and woman) and the original sin. While it's easy to get caught up in the details of the story, the symbolism that's used makes it clear that the original sin is simply the man and woman's attempt to determine for themselves what is good and evil, right and wrong, and whenever humans do this in the Scriptures, disaster follows...

Every year Lent gives us the chance to make a new start in our relationship with God. A "reboot." Today's Gospel for Ash Wednesday helps us to understand how -- practically -- we might do this: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. But why these? We talk about how these three spiritual practices help us to get to the heart of what Lent is about.

When Jesus cites the Old Testament maxim, "An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth," he's pointing to a standard governing relationships--that of justice. Justice, of course, is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it assures one of his rights and responsibilities relative to others. If we steal a sheep, we owe a sheep. This standard of justice is often the one that governs our relationships: If you are kind to me, I will be kind to you. If you mess with me, I will mess with you back. But for Jesus, this standard is not enough. Instead, he wants that the standard that governs the relationships of his followers be not justice but love. This is where life gets challenging... and exhilarating.

In today's Gospel we hear a chunk of Jesus's teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. It's tempting for us to listen to his teaching with a lack of enthusiasm when it challenges us. Yet what we often misunderstand is that Jesus does not give us the law in order to restrict our freedom or limit our happiness. On the contrary! The law that Jesus gives is the way that leads to our happiness. And the reason that we can be sure of this is that God is the one who created us, and so it is God who knows how it is that we will achieve what we are all looking for: happiness and fulfillment.

Today Jesus tells his disciples that they must be "salt" and "light". Last week as I was reading about the story of St. Paul Miki and companions and the history of the Catholic Church in Japan, I was convicted I had to share their stories as examples of the impact of being salt and light. How is God calling you, in the concrete circumstances of your life, to be salt and light?

Today we focus on those mysterious words that Simeon prophesies to Mary, when she and Joseph present Jesus in the Temple: "And you yourself a sword shall pierce." Why would Simeon focus on Mary in this way? It seems that an answer can be found at the end of John's Gospel, where we see Mary standing at the foot of the Cross. Mary suffers along with Jesus. She doesn't try to run away, she doesn't close herself off in self-pity or lash out in blame for others. She is "Our Lady of Sorrow", the one to whom we should go to in order to learn how to accept and live the cross in our lives.