Lessons of hope . . . when feeling like a loser

Father Augustin Wetta's 2025 ICYC message: God uses our failures, shortcomings for final victory

Father Augustine Wetta, O.S.B. “photo bombs” the God Squad. God Squad volunteers welcome and encourage ICYC attendees. This year, they come from Our Lady of the Valley in Caldwell, Sacred Heart in Emmett, St. Mark’s in Boise, St. John’s Cathedral in Boise and Our Lady of the Rosary in Boise. (ICR Photo/Vero Gutiérrez)

By Philip A. Janquart

ICR Assistant Editor

Whether we admit it or not, we are all losers to some degree.

But don’t feel bad because everyone makes mistakes, falls short of expectations, or sometimes completely misses the boat. It’s ok because so did the saints, at least at first glance.

Studying their lives, it becomes evident that the Lord uses our apparent failures and shortcomings, even our physical and social nonconformities, to cultivate decisive victory.

That was part of Father Augustine Wetta’s message—delivered in his unique, whimsical style—during the 2025 Idaho Catholic Youth Conference (ICYC) held March 7-9 at the Ford Idaho Center adjunct sports arena in Nampa.

He opened Saturday’s talk, titled “Failing: Lessons of Hope for Losers, Has-beens, Washouts and Other Great Saints,” by playfully alluding to his own unique debility.

“I played rugby for 18 years and, as a result, I have this kind of permanent tremor in my left hand,” said Father Wetta, raising the shaking and twitching hand before about 1,500 teens, young adults, and others who came to participate in Idaho’s largest Catholic Youth gathering.

“If I point at someone with this hand, don’t worry, you’re not in trouble,” he said. “And don’t wave back, either; just know I haven’t been drinking.”

Father Wetta is a Benedictine monk from the Saint Louis Abbey in St. Louis, Missouri. He has two Theology degrees from Oxford University, a bachelor’s degree in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations from Rice University, and a master’s in English from Middlebury College.

He teaches English, Classics and Theology at the Priory School in St. Louis, where he also coached rugby and served as director of chaplaincy. He frequently appears on Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).

Father Augustine Wetta speaks at the 2025 Idaho Catholic Youth Conference on March 8. He used the checkered pasts of several saints to underscore the fact that, although imperfect, we can all become saints. (ICR Photo/Philip A. Janquart)

Father Wetta began with a brief foray into Greek mythology.

“I want to start with Achilles, a definitive non-saint,” he said of the character in the “Iliad,” Homer’s epic poem. “He was a warrior, hero and was never beaten in battle.”

Father Wetta explained that Bronze Age Greeks measured honor by such criteria.

“If someone stole one of your cows, you lost five cows worth of honor. If someone insulted you in public and you didn’t come back with an equal or greater insult, well then, you had less honor,” he said.

Father Wetta explained that we haven’t changed much since the Bronze Age. He cited a student who said that honor, success, and reputation are measured today by the number of followers one has and one’s ability to influence others on social media.

“A student of mine said that people have x-number of followers on that …‘Insta-face,’ or whatever you call it, and that he can get his followers to dislike someone else’s videos, that he can insult them and it’s all permanent; it’s all measurable, which is disturbing to me,” he said.

If we measure our self-worth by our ability to battle back when attacked, we are no better than Achilles, Wetta said. Achilles’ constant need to prove himself in battle was his undoing. He noted that we have the same Achilles’ heel and the same point of weakness if we believe ‘winning’ in life comes from producing the best slam, comeback, or power-play.

“It’s all about money and things, which is really tragic,” Father Wetta remarked. “But the focus tonight is not to whine about how lousy the world has become. It’s rather to propose some solutions, and I offer that in the form of stories about saints. As I move from one absolute, stellar failure to the next, I want you to keep Achilles in mind.”

The first saint he cited was a man who did not conform to the social norms of the time but was rather ordained for a particular purpose that ultimately took him through the “narrow gate,” and an end that involved suffering.

“I want to start with the biggest loser of all time, John the Baptist,” he said. “I mean, he ate bugs, made homemade clothes and died young. By his own admission, he was unworthy to unfasten the sandals of the Man he baptized. His followers decided to abandon him to follow Jesus; He decreased so Jesus could increase.

“Saint John was murdered by the very people he was trying to help. He was preparing them for a messiah they would reject, humiliate and execute,” he said. “And yet, Jesus said this colossal failure was the greatest man born of woman.”

He also spoke about Saints Simon and Jude, who, he noted, were obscure next to Jesus’ other Apostles.

“Here are two men who own nothing … and even Christians don’t know anything about them,” he said, adding that Saint Jude was often confused with Judas Iscariot.

“And it gets worse: the Gospel writers themselves can’t even keep his name straight. John called him “Judas,” and Luke called him Jude, James’s brother.

“And no one understands this, but Matthew calls him Thaddeus, which probably wasn’t even his name. He says nothing in any of the Gospels except … ‘What’s this?’ and that’s it,” Father Wetta said. “We know even less about Simon, if you can believe that, only that he is not Peter. And yet, these two men were literally hand-picked by God to lead His Church.”

Father Wetta explained that other saints were shunned and cast out for physical features or disabilities that were beyond their control.

St. Drogo, Father Wetta said, is the patron saint of those whom others find repulsive, are unattractive, have bodily ills, broken bones, are deaf, have gall stones, hernias, illness and insanity.

Many of the saints were tortured and killed for their beliefs, dying with nothing but their inward dignity.

In the end, he said success shouldn’t be measured by possessions and status, alluding to the fact that the only one we need to please in life is the Lord.

“When you arrive on your deathbed, you will inevitably have to do without your trophies, diplomas, and accolades,” Father Wetta said in conclusion. “Without even your bodily health to comfort you, all that will matter is your existence as a child of God, and that will be enough. In fact, it will be more than enough; it will be absolutely everything.”