“Be
doers of the word and not hearers only…” (James 1:22)
This morning
before Mass, one of the altar servers and I were talking about the Columbus-St.
Thomas Aquinas football game on Friday night.
One of the Eucharistic ministers was over hearing the conversation and
she asked, “Father, you like football?”
Every one in the room began to laugh because it was like asking a child
if he liked candy. As I was laughing, I
was reminded of that moment in the gospel of John when Phillip asks Jesus to
show them the Father and Jesus responds, “Have I been with you so long and you
still do not know me?” Everyone turned
to this kind and wonderful lady and reminded her that I had much more than a
mild interest in football.
One of the worst
kept secrets in the parish over the last couple of months is that last spring I
was asked to be the Team Priest for the Miami Dolphins. Everyone keeps coming up to me and saying,
“Father that must be your dreams job.” I
quickly correct them, “No I am living my dream right now as I’m standing before
all of you preaching and celebrating the Eucharist.” (But this other gig does
come in a close second.) As soon as I
was offered this assignment, my first worry was how it would affect my ministry
in the parish, but I also asked myself:
apart from being around the team that I have loved and rooted for since
I was a baby, how could I possibly make a difference in this new ministry
beyond just celebrating Mass for the team?
I’ll get back to this question in a moment.
In today’s
readings, Jesus asks us to hear his words and understand them. Apparently the Pharisees and Scribes were not
listening very well because they always put the law and the statutes of the law
above a genuine relationship with God. Jesus calls them out on it when he calls them
hypocrites that pay lip service to God but really don’t follow His
commandments. Small rituals are more
important to them than bringing people closer to God, which is what their
ministry should entail. This happens to
Catholics as well when we get caught up in prayers and novenas and rosaries and
other rituals that are all well and good as long as they don’t alienate us from
our brothers and sisters and from God.
We can repeat the same prayers every day out of a sense of obligation,
but I ask you: is it bringing you closer to God or are you doing it out of
obligation? If it is simply out of
obligation then it’s probably time to change up your prayer habits. The prayers and rituals of our beautiful
faith should help us deepen our relationship with God and should spur is into
action out of love for our neighbor. The
Pharisees and Scribes lorded over the people with all these laws that had
become nonsensical, but Jesus sums up the law in one word: love. We must love God and love our neighbor. Upon receiving the word of God, we must be
doers of the word, as St. James tells us, and not just hearers. We must carry that Word, Jesus Christ, in our
hearts so that people can see that there is something different about us. The disciples in last week’s gospel did not
leave Jesus’ side because they were drawn to him. People should be drawn to us as Christians in
the same way. We must radiate the
presence of Jesus Christ at all times.
This brings me
back to my earlier question of how I could minister to a professional football
team. When I started travelling with the
team on road games (no, I was not driving the plane when we were leaving
Dallas), I felt a bit out of place and asked a lot of questions of where I needed
to be and what I needed to do beyond the celebration of the team Mass. On my first road trip, I still didn’t know
where I was going to watch the game until I was told: “Coach wants you on the bench.” There I was, a little kid now a priest
standing on the sidelines with the football team he has lived and died with for
36 long, long years. I respect our head
coach a great deal, not because he offered me this generous invitation, but
because as a man of deep faith he probably knows from experience the impact a
priest can have on those around him.
Eventually, I slowly started to recognize why he wanted me around. As the preseason went on, more players and
staff reached out to me, more people were attending Mass, and during our second
preseason home game, even one of the fans was touched by my presence on the
sidelines.
That evening
just 10 days ago, I was walking out of the tunnel after halftime when I
approached the wall near the west end zone to say hello to two parishioners
from my first parish who I love dearly.
They came down to the railing and I had to reach up and they had to
reach down to shake my hand because the first row is about 8 feet above the
field. While I was talking to them, I
thin gentleman came to the railing. He
looked down at me. He was extremely
thin. The skin on his face clung to his
cheekbones. It took a lot of energy for
him to say to me over the noise of the stadium:
“Father, could you say a prayer of healing over me and bless me. I’m terminal.” My parishioner and I exchanged glances
because we both knew immediately this moment of grace that the Good Lord had
placed before us. I smiled and nodded
and extended my right hand toward him and began to pray for his healing. When I was done, I blessed him and all of the
sudden this man that at first looked to be in so much pain, looked like he was
filled with an overwhelming peace as he smiled down at me. He sat down.
I went back to the sidelines for the remainder of the game, but I could
not get this man out of my head. I don’t
know if he was Catholic. It didn’t
matter. He saw a man that represented
God standing on the sidelines with his favorite football team and when I got
closer to him, he asked me for prayer.
All I was doing was standing there wearing my black collar not
representing a particular football team but representing my Lord and carrying His
presence in my heart. All of us are
called to do the same. We must take
Christ with us wherever we go. We must
always radiate with his presence. You
don’t need a roman collar or a habit to transmit Christ’s presence. I know so many holy lay people who are so
filled with the love of Christ that people, random people, approach them in
waiting rooms, at work or at school and basically just start telling them their
life stories. Presence and action are
far more important than any words we can offer.
So I don’t know if this is what Coach had in mind when he asked me to be
on the sidelines. All I know is that I
made a dying fan’s day brighter simply by being there with the team and praying
for him. We may not have won the
football game that night, but as a team, we definitely won a soul for God.
