PODCAST

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

Homilies by Fr. Matthew Wiering, Diocese of New Ulm, MN

religion & spirituality christianity

All Episodes

12:06

The Most Fulfilling Thing We Can Do

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/05/27

In today's Gospel, in the context of their loving relationship of deep friendship, Jesus invites Peter to make a gift of his life. In this homily from the last Mass with our graduating seniors, we explore what truly satisfies us in life.

15:57

Am I Hearing the Holy Spirit or the Evil Spirit?

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/05/25

On this Pentecost Sunday, the Church gives us as a second reading Paul's list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, self-control, etc. These are the signs that accompany the Holy Spirit. St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his "Rules for the Discernment of Spirits," gives us something very similar: A basis for how we can tell whether it is the Holy Spirit we are listening to or the Evil Spirit.

11:35

Be Joyful and Get to Work!

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/05/14

The Ascension of Jesus is a great mystery, and we realize this as we reflect on the reaction that the disciples have to witnessing their friend and lord Jesus depart from this earth. Instead of being downcast, the Gospels tell us that the disciples were joyful and immediately got to work preaching and witnessing to the Resurrection of Jesus. They understood that Jesus's visible presence was now passing into the Sacraments and, via the Sacraments, into them. May this be our cause for joy and action,

17:03

What does it mean when the Bible says "God is love"?

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/05/06

There are religions that claim that God loves or does loving things, but it is only Christianity that makes the strange claim that "God is love". In this homily we talk about what this means and apply it to our lives.

12:51

On Grapes and Vines (Remaining in Jesus)

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/04/29

Today we celebrate the 1st Communion of a number of our young people, and we have the perfect Gospel to prepare us for this gift. Jesus gives us the very familiar biblical images of grapes and vines, which tell us so much about how we must live in imitation of Jesus (by being willing to be crushed like grapes) and how we have the strength to do this (by remaining on the vine that is Jesus).

13:50

The Grace to be a Good Shepherd

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/04/21

On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we take a closer look at St. Peter, who gives a fiery speech to the religious authorities in the 1st Reading from the Acts of the Apostles. There is no better example of the transformation that can come from grace than St. Peter, who went from denying even knowing Jesus out of fear to fearlessly witnessing to him in front of those who could imprison or even kill him. At the Last Supper, Jesus says to Peter, "I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail

13:36

From Fear and Guilt to Peace and Joy

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/04/16

In this account of the Resurrection from Luke, we begin in a similar way to last week's Gospel from John: The disciples are gathered together in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Out of fear they have locked themselves in to keep any enemies out. We can only imagine the fear that they feel, that what happened to Jesus will also happen to them. But we can also only imagine the guilt they must have felt: Each had abandoned Jesus in his time of need. Yet it was precisely into that bad spiritual space that

16:02

God's Easter Gift is Forgiveness

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/04/10

The Gospel tells us that on the evening of Easter, Jesus appears in the locked Upper Room to his disciples, who were obviously in a state of misery -- grieving and confused, fearful that what happened to Jesus would happen to them, and guilt-ridden because of how they abandoned Jesus. Yet Jesus's first words to them were not, "You have really disappointed me," or, "Did you learn nothing from me over the past three years," but rather, "Peace be with you." And the effect that these words and the sight

18:17

Easter Sunday: God is Greater

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/04/01

Through the Passion and Death of Jesus, all of the dysfunction and disorder of the world is hurled on Jesus. Hatred, anger, oppression, greed, abuse, betrayal, abandonment ... the worst that the world has to offer is heaped upon Jesus. And Jesus accepts the violence and hate. He does not defend himself but allows himself to succumb to these worst forces of evil, dying, being buried, and descending into hell. But this is not the end of the story! The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the sign

12:19

Holy Saturday Night: Jesus Fulfills the Ancient Promises

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/04/01

08:15

Good Friday: Why is Jesus Silent during the Passion?

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/03/30

It's interesting to think about the silence of Jesus during the Passion. On Good Friday we hear the Passion according to St. John, which begins in Chapter 18. Chapters 14-17 of John's Gospel are Jesus talking nearly continuously at the Last Supper. (It's his longest discourse in all of the Gospels.) And then the Passion begins, and he hardly says anything. We especially notice this when Jesus is asked direct questions by Pilate and others interrogating him, and he stays silent. Tonight while he

09:17

Holy Week: Jesus's Life All Poured Out

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/03/25

St. Mark introduces his Passion Narrative in an interesting way, by recounting a dinner that takes place in Bethany just before Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time. He dines at the home of Simon, and a woman breaks an extremely expensive jar of perfumed oil and pours out its contents on Jesus's head. The Greek word here translated as "breaks" has the sense of being "shattered." Obviously, if the jar is shattered, all of its precious liquid will be poured out. The image helps us to interpret

11:42

Unless a Grain of Wheat...

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/03/18

In John Chapter 12 we encounter Jesus at the height of his career. He has just raised Lazarus who had been dead four days in the tomb. When he enters Jerusalem for the last time, crowds gather to sing and wave palm branches in celebration. In today's Gospel we see that even the Greek-speaking Jews who have traveled a great distance to Jerusalem have heard about him and are trying to see him. Everybody is talking about him, and many desire to crown him King of Israel. It is at this moment, when Jesus

12:40

You are Loved

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/03/10

In today's Gospel we hear the magnificent verses from John 3:16-17: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." The 2nd reading from St. Paul is so similar: "God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions..." What do we believe God's

15:20

You are a Temple

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/03/04

In today's Gospel Jesus turns over the tables of the money changers and drives out those who were selling livestock outside the Temple. He did this not because there was anything objectively evil going on but because he could sense that worldliness had invaded the sacred space of the Temple. When he sees disorder within God's house he has no time or tolerance for it but must drive it out. If this is true for the Temple in Jerusalem, which is merely a sign and foreshadowing of its fulfillment in the

13:43

I Want to See

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/02/27

In today's Gospel of the Transfiguration, the appearance of Jesus changes in front of the disciples. He appears dazzling with light, and the disciples are bedazzled! What's important for us to understand is that Jesus himself doesn't change at the Transfiguration, but the vision of the disciples does. They see him anew, as God. He is "God from God, light from light." Being able to see with the eyes of faith will change everything for them, especially as they go back down the mountain to "normal"

14:46

What to do in times of Temptation

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/02/19

It might surprise us where the Holy Spirit sends Jesus immediately after anointing him at his baptism: He drives him into the desert to be tempted. He did this so that Christ could enter fully into our fallen humanity, including into those aspects which are most painful and humiliating for us. Here it is important to distinguish between being tempted and falling prey to temptation, which is to sin. As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, Christ was tempted in every way that we are, but

13:09

You Cannot Soil God

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/02/15

One of the easy-to-forget details in the account of Jesus's healing of the man with leprosy is the fact that both the man and Jesus act in ways that were completely taboo, that would have been unthinkable in the time and culture of Jesus. The man comes right up to Jesus (which he was not supposed to do, lest he come in physical contact with another person and render them unclean (and perhaps communicate the deadly disease of leprosy in the process)). And Jesus, rather than running as fast as he

16:26

What to do When we are Angry with God

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/02/05

The story of Job is the story of one who speaks very directly to God in the face of the sufferings he is experiencing. Pope Francis calls the Book of Job a "prayer of protest"! It is brutally honest prayer. Throughout the Scriptures we encounter those who openly share their suffering with God, which includes, anger with God, confusion over his ways, and even a sense of being abandoned by God. May we imitate these voices as they teach us to pray more and more honestly from the heart, which will only

14:17

Can Someone be Called to be Single?

Father Matthew Wiering Podcast ·

2024/01/30

Today we focus on our 2nd Reading from Chapter 7 of St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. There he says some very counter-cultural things. He talks about marriage as not merely a natural good but a real charism (grace) and call from God. And, perhaps more counter-culturally, he talks about the celibate single life as a real charism (grace) and call from God. Most surprisingly of all, he says that he prefers the single life to the married life and says earlier in this chapter that he wishes

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