Fr. Vince Yeager - Tuesday Morning Homily (2021 Priests, Deacons, Seminarian's Retreat)

[Music] [Music] so my father works at the railroad so blue collar job i kind of grew up in that culture and there's something that's unique about blue collar workers that you don't really see in a lot of the circles that we end up running in more of the white collar stuff because they just kind of say what's on their mind it's less veiled and honestly it's there's some integrity there it might not be nice it might be less polite but it's honest and my dad had these has these couple of interactions it's really really interesting and highly disappointing actually so he's kind of open about the fact that i'm his son and i'm a priest comes up in conversation he's candid about his catholic faith and he talks about it especially whenever guys come to him for advice but word gets out and there are some of these other guys and they're not so open to it in fact they go to such extremes as to adopt what the secular world has come to widely believe that we're all a bunch of child molesters it's what they believe and they'll tease and they'll poke and they'll prod and they'll harass and so my dad has to deal with that and there's another another guy that he works with whose son is also a priest but my dad and this guy have two different ways of dealing with it because they both face the same trial well this other guy he responds with anger and threats of violence it stops the harassment it's effective however he's angry then he's wound up and he's upset and it demeans him my father on the other hand takes this very interesting approach and they don't know what to do with it he comes along and he he says you don't know what you're talking about just go away just go away but he says i'll pray for you and they get all flustered about that whenever he says i will pray for you they they don't know what to do with it they actually get upset themselves and then they go away and it's over but that to that point is the gospel for today where jesus says pray for your enemies love your enemies pray for those who persecute you it's counterintuitive it doesn't make sense because everything in our being from the natural point of view from our fallen nature wants to freak out and become angry and there's so many reasons there's so many reasons to become angry whether it's the secular media whether it's corruption whether it's our our own brothers who have maligned our good name by their actions we could get angry youtube theological commentators who undermine the church and the list goes on and on and on are just difficult parishioners right all these various aspects of our life reasons we could choose to become angry and in some sense maybe rightfully so but the challenge of the gospel is to live differently the challenge that jesus lays before us today is to live differently because as he says all the tax collectors and the sinners they do the same the gentiles do the same they only care for those whom they're close to and like but we have the example of the early church the martyrs and onward in the face of persecution rather than reviling rather than getting angry rather than being resentful and bitter and spiteful they turn with love to pray for their persecutors to pray for those who are going to kill them in a few minutes and it's that witness that brought about so many conversions the witness that although we in their minds should respond with anger at the injustice that we see and that we experience when we don't there's a difference people see the gospel they see jesus in us he who was accused falsely he who was reviled and persecuted and opened not his mouth he who suffered death to take the sin upon himself and it changed everything now easier said than done obviously obviously because of our own strength i can't do it you can't do none of us are capable of our own strength to take on this burden to live out this call to love our enemies to be patient enough to pray genuinely from our hearts for our persecutors from those who accuse us falsely we don't have to do it alone peter was speaking earlier about how difficult and how dark and how the powers of darkness are rising up and we see it in and out i was talking to someone last night about the exorcist chief exorcist of the archdiocese of washington dc he made a comment here's a blog that he writes and he said you know there's a saying that exorcis or that possession is rare and at the end he said i'm not so sure that's true and this is a man with experience but the point is not to despair but the point is to rejoice because when sin abounds grace abounds all the more that we are given the authority and the power to deal with it by the grace of god that we are given the inroads into people's lives that they can entrust themselves to us to seek our assistance and we can provide it to give them that care to walk with them to bring them into the life of the church once again through the sacraments through those extra sacramental inroads again we can't do it on our own strength i've tried it it doesn't work okay i'm sure many of us have tried it and we end up burned out tired exhausted seeking the wrong things worn out and just frustrated because we run out of ideas we run out of energy we run out of everything that it takes but it's only it's only whenever we seek that friendship that brotherhood with jesus daily prayer every day when we seek that brotherhood with our other brothers brother priests brother deacons if you're seminarians brother seminarians to seek that fraternity but ultimately it's the lord who has to inspire it in us and so where sin abounds all the more grace abounds more than that so there's a great darkness but it's a time of grace all the more gifts i'm sure gifts of the holy spirit that we haven't yet seen gifts for evangelization gifts for healing gifts for deliverance her perseverance in the midst of trial and affliction but we have to ask the lord we have to seek the gifts of the holy spirit so we're speaking of baptism of the holy spirit earlier if you haven't experienced it go for it it'll change your life all for the better now you lose a little bit of control you don't know what the lord's going to do but it's good it is good because then we lose we begin to lose track of our own ego and focus on the lord it becomes about serving him and him alone now i've only been a priest two and a half years a lot of you have a whole lot more experience than me so maybe i'm preaching to the choir here but we all need a good word we all need the encouragement and so we through this week i really want to again encourage hammer that point home again and again and again there seems to be a grace that the lord wants to pour out that through this last year the dead branches have shaken and they've broken off and the weak ones need to be strengthened but when we rely on the lord when we draw upon his strength when we turn to him in this eucharist and offer him those struggles and offer him those joys that we have too the ways we've seen growth and we'll receive that grace to love as he loved to the grace to persevere as he did to forgive his offenders to forgive his persecutors to forgive and to bless them to give them that grace that they may always seek then to serve the lord when their hearts have turned to him

Channel: Steubenville Conferences

Views: 16

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Steubenville Conferences, Catholic, Franciscan University, Catholic Ministry, New Evangelization, Youth

Id: 0FI1nog_kG8

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021