Skinny Soccer Player

Peering through the eyes of faith

Philippians 4: 6-10

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.

            There’s an old saying that goes, “Hindsight is 20/20.”  What does that mean?  Basically, it means that after you’ve completed something, a given stage in life, and you look back on the road you’ve walked, you see it more clearly.  You look back and perhaps regret things you did or wish you had done different things.  Hindsight gives you clear vision.  When I was in high school I really wanted to play football.  But my parents said, “No, son, we have enough medical bills.  Why don’t you play soccer instead, and study more?”  I was disappointed at the time and knew that the football players were the cool kids.  But now, looking back, I am glad my parents made my study more.  That’s partly how I became a priest.  Girls aren’t crazy about skinny soccer players, they prefer a big, buff football player.  I couldn’t see clearly in high school what was truly important, but I can see that perfectly with 20/20 vision now.  Hindsight is 20/20.

             As you graduate from sixth grade, you’re completing a milestone in your life, and now you enjoy a little hindsight.  You’ve come to the end of elementary school.  As you look back on your years here, is there anything you would have done differently if you had the chance?  Perhaps you feel you should have worked harder in math class, or practiced your band instrument every day, or not fallen asleep in Fr. Andrew’s homilies!  Can you see how hindsight is 20/20?  You see clearly what you should have done in third grade or fifth grade but when you were in that grade, you didn’t really know what was important.  This will happen again in high school when you complete it.  It will happen again when you finish college.  It happens to men when they turn 40 years old: they look back at their life and say, “Ahh!  I should have done things differently!”  And then it happens to them again when they turn 60, and they say, “Man, I sure regret what I did when I was 40!”  Only when we arrive at end of the road, and look back over the terrain we’ve traversed, can we see with crystal clarity what we should have done.

             Well, I figured out a way to cheat and get hindsight before you complete the journey.  I know how to see what a man lying on his deathbed can see, I know how to understand what he understands; a man near death enjoys 20/20 vision over his life.  Do you know how to cheat and see things like that?  That’s called faith.  Faith is perfect eyesight, you see what’s important and what doesn’t really matter in life.  That’s why they say, “There are no atheists in foxholes.”  A foxhole is where a soldier crouches because bullets are flying over his head and he could die any moment.  As he huddles close to death, he suddenly sees clearly: of course there is a God!  He says things like, “I should have forgiven my brother,” and “I should have listened to my wife,” and “I should have gone to church more often,” and “Being a skinny soccer player really is better than being a football jock.”  When you are at the end of the road and can take a look back over your life everything becomes clear.  You can enjoy that same clarity right now if you peek through the eyes of faith.  Faith lets you cheat and have hindsight right now.

             That’s what I hope you’ve learned here at Immaculate Conception School.  I hope you’ve learned not only how to add and subtract, not only how to read and write, not only how to play fair and to be a leader.  But I pray you’ve learned to see with the eyes of faith; that’s 20/20 vision!  That faith inspired St. Paul to say to the Philippians: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  That’s what a man lying on his deathbed might say, and that’s what a student graduating from Immaculate Conception might say.  Why?  Because they can both see…perfectly.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!