Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

Today we hear Jesus say to his disciples, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid." The fruit of the Holy Spirit whom the Father sends in Jesus's name into our hearts is peace. Yet how often do we let our hearts "be troubled or afraid"? Worldy anxiety and lack of trust often make our hearts fearful and anxious. So what should we do when we have lost God's peace?

Jesus gives us two words to focus on in today's Gospel: glory and love. Both of these words can mean different things to us, but the important thing is, what do they mean to Jesus? We dig deeper and find that both find their meaning for Jesus in the gift that he makes of himself on the Cross. Which makes us really happy that our Catholic churches and homes present to us crosses with the dead body of Jesus on it: The moment that he calls his "glory" and the place where he proves his "love".

On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we meditate on the life of a good shepherd whose feast day the Church in the United States just celebrated on May 10: St. Damien of Molokai. His life shows us how to be happy and how to be a saint -- by making our life a gift.

One of the intriguing details from today's Gospel is John's inclusion of the detail that Jesus was standing by a charcoal fire when he appears to the Gospels. We talk about the hidden significance of this image and how it leads us to see what brings us to true life: Making a gift of ourselves, which Jesus does for us by giving us to eat his very Body and Blood.

Today's Gospel finds the disciples bunkered down behind a locked door because of their fear, grief, disappointment, and shame. How often do we lock the door of our hearts when we are experiencing the same thing?! The good news is that when we finally allow the Merciful Lord access, not only can He come in, but He can lead us out... to witness to our faith in the Resurrection.

The Letter to the Hebrews describes Christ's life in the Resurrection as "Indestructible Life". This is the new life that pulses through Jesus's Body and Soul in his Resurrected state, in which he enters into a new dimension of being. How, in the midst of our own darkness and misery, can Jesus's Risen Life touch our life? It is through our doing what Peter did in his own darkness and confusion: Rising. Running to the tomb. Seeking out the encounter with the Lord who has conquered darkness and who wants to bring this light and LIFE into the deadness of our hearts.

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...

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.

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.

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.