February 23, 2025 Homily: Fr Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02well as I mentioned at the beginning of
2. 0:04mass today the words of Jesus today are
3. 0:06challenging radical and completely
4. 0:11countercultural he does not tell us to
5. 0:13love only those who love us to be kind
6. 0:17only to those who are kind to us that
7. 0:21would be
8. 0:22easy why because that's how the world
9. 0:27functions Jesus commands us love your
10. 0:30enemies do good to those who hate you
11. 0:34bless those who curse you pray for those
12. 0:37who mistreat
13. 0:40you what Jesus is asking is not
14. 0:44natural our human instinct our human
15. 0:48condition is to protect ourselves to
16. 0:51strike back when we're hurt to keep a
17. 0:54record of all the
18. 0:57wrongs that Christ calls us to something
19. 0:59far far
20. 1:01greater to the Divine Way of
21. 1:06love there's a true story of Hubert
22. 1:09Humphrey who was a former vice president
23. 1:12you may remember
24. 1:14this former Vice President of the United
25. 1:17States and when he died thousands of
26. 1:18people from across the world attended
27. 1:21his
28. 1:22funeral former and all were welcome but
29. 1:27one former president Richard Nixon who
30. 1:30was still feeling the effects of the
31. 1:33humiliation and shame of
32. 1:37Watergate as people gathered there
33. 1:40people were averting their eyes in their
34. 1:43conversations and Nixon sensed that he
35. 1:45was not welcome and he was being
36. 1:48deliberately
37. 1:51shunned then the serving US President
38. 1:54Jimmy Carter walked into the
39. 1:56room Carter was from a different
40. 2:00different political party to
41. 2:02Nixon and as he was moving towards his
42. 2:05seat President Carter noticed Richard
43. 2:08Nixon standing all along all
44. 2:12alone Carter immediately changed
45. 2:16course walked over to Richard Nixon held
46. 2:20out his hand and smiling
47. 2:23genuinely broadly embraced Nixon and
48. 2:25said to him welcome home Mr President
49. 2:29welcome Welcome
50. 2:31Home the incident was reported by
51. 2:33Newsweek magazine which wrote this if
52. 2:36there was a turning point in Nixon's
53. 2:39long ordeal in the wilderness it was
54. 2:42that moment and that gesture of love and
55. 2:47compassion my friends this is what Jesus
56. 2:49is calling us to
57. 2:51do not just withhold our anger not just
58. 2:55to refrain from taking Revenge but
59. 2:58actually to love to reach out and to
60. 3:01embrace and to find a way to
61. 3:06restore we live in a time when division
62. 3:09anger and Vengeance are the
63. 3:12norm Society tells us to get
64. 3:15even to cancel those who offend us to
65. 3:19crush our
66. 3:21enemies but Jesus calls us to something
67. 3:24so much higher and
68. 3:27Holier his way is not the way of Revenge
69. 3:30but the way of
70. 3:33redemption the world says get even Jesus
71. 3:37says
72. 3:38forgive the world says cut them off
73. 3:42Jesus says
74. 3:44reconcile the world says destroy your
75. 3:48enemies Jesus says love
76. 3:52them and this is not some lofty ideal
77. 3:56that Jesus merely preaches this is the
78. 3:58way he lived
79. 4:01you'll remember from the cross in the
80. 4:03face of betrayal torture and death he
81. 4:06did not cry out for
82. 4:08justice he did not summon angels to come
83. 4:11down and strike his
84. 4:14executioners what does he say instead he
85. 4:16said he prayed for them Father forgive
86. 4:19them for they know not what they
87. 4:23do if we truly if we are truly his
88. 4:26disciples then we must live as he lived
89. 4:31and that means loving those we find the
90. 4:33hardest to
91. 4:37love the first reading today gives us a
92. 4:39powerful foreshadowing of Jesus's
93. 4:43teaching King Saul filled with jealousy
94. 4:46and rage was Haunting David to kill
95. 4:49him but when David found Saul asleep and
96. 4:53vulnerable he had the perfect
97. 4:55opportunity to take his
98. 4:57revenge his men even urged urge them to
99. 5:01strike but David
100. 5:03refuses
101. 5:05why well because he understood something
102. 5:09profound The Taking of life does not
103. 5:11belong to us it belongs to
104. 5:13God instead of raising his hand against
105. 5:16his enemy David chose
106. 5:19Mercy he let Saul
107. 5:22live that decision was not just Noble it
108. 5:25was
109. 5:26Godly and yet Jesus calls us to go even
110. 5:30further than
111. 5:31David Jesus does not simply tell us to
112. 5:35withhold Vengeance He commands us to
113. 5:38actively love our enemies to bless them
114. 5:41to good to do good to
115. 5:44them and this is not about being
116. 5:47weak this is about being holy which
117. 5:50should be all of our goals to seek
118. 5:54Holiness let's be honest forgiving our
119. 5:56enemies is one of the hardest things we
120. 5:58will ever do
121. 6:01some of you may be thinking father you
122. 6:02have no idea what's been done to
123. 6:05me you don't know how I have been
124. 6:08betrayed how I have been wounded how I
125. 6:11have been treated
126. 6:13unjustly and you're probably right I
127. 6:16don't
128. 6:17know but I do know
129. 6:21this unforgiveness is a
130. 6:24prison it keeps us chained to the past
131. 6:28it poison it poisons us with bitterness
132. 6:32consumes us with thoughts of
133. 6:35Retribution but when we
134. 6:37forgive we set ourselves
135. 6:41free forgiveness does not mean excusing
136. 6:46sin it does not mean pretending that
137. 6:48evil did not
138. 6:51happen it means refusing to let hatred
139. 6:54have the final
140. 6:56word it means trusting that God is the
141. 6:59just judge and that he alone sees the
142. 7:02full picture and will take care of the
143. 7:07situation how can we possibly love our
144. 7:09enemies as Jesus
145. 7:12commands how can we forgive when
146. 7:14everything inside of us wants
147. 7:18Justice well I'm here to tell you we
148. 7:21can't do it
149. 7:23alone St Paul tells us in today's second
150. 7:26reading that there are two kinds of
151. 7:28humanity
152. 7:29one from the first Adam which is Earthly
153. 7:33and weak and the second one the second
154. 7:37Adam which is Christ the one who is from
155. 7:41Heaven if we try to love our enemies
156. 7:44with our human strength with our human
157. 7:47agency we will fail every
158. 7:51time but if we live in Christ if we
159. 7:53surrender our anger we surrender our
160. 7:56pain and our wounds to him
161. 8:00then his love can work through
162. 8:04us this is why we
163. 8:06pray this is why we fast that's why we
164. 8:09enter into communion this relationship
165. 8:12with the Lord understand the potential
166. 8:14of what we can become in
167. 8:19him we need his grace we can't do this
168. 8:23on our
169. 8:24own we cannot love as Christ loves
170. 8:27without his power working in US it won't
171. 8:32happen but I want to leave you with a
172. 8:35challenge this
173. 8:36week think of someone in your life whom
174. 8:39you struggle to
175. 8:41love maybe it's a family member maybe
176. 8:44it's a coworker a friend who betrayed
177. 8:46you or even someone you don't really
178. 8:48know personally but Harbors a resentment
179. 8:51against
180. 8:52you I want you to pray for them this
181. 8:55week by
182. 8:57name ask God to bless them
183. 9:00ask Jesus to give his heart for them
184. 9:03give you his heart for
185. 9:05them and then take a small step towards
186. 9:08forgiveness maybe it's a kind word maybe
187. 9:11it's letting go of interiorly to the
188. 9:14Past hurt or maybe it's choosing to stop
189. 9:18rehearsing the offenses in your
190. 9:23mind my brothers and sisters when we
191. 9:26forgive we are never more like Christ
192. 9:30when we love our enemies we become
193. 9:32children of our heavenly
194. 9:35father and when we stand before him one
195. 9:37day may we be able to say Lord I tried
196. 9:41to love as you have
197. 9:44loved and he will say I know well done
198. 9:48good and faithful servant amen