Faith or Football

Making the uncomfortable choice for Christianity

10/14/2017

Luke 11:27-28 While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed." He replied, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."

           In the course of our Christian lives, we are constantly presented with an uncomfortable choice: between earth and heaven, between the natural and the supernatural, between the temporal and the eternal. I say this choice is “uncomfortable” because we’d really like to have both – the best of both worlds – but sometimes we must choose one or the other. The fact that you are at 7 a.m. Mass on Saturday morning, especially on “college game day,” means you’re choosing faith over football, or at least faith first and football second. I mean, let’s not get carried away here.

             C. S. Lewis, the Christian writer and apologist, painted the picture more colorfully in his celebrated essay, “The Weight of Glory.” In 1941, he wrote these memorable lines: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot image what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” That is, we are far too easily pleased by earthly things, because we’ll spend 30 minutes on faith but 3 hours on football.

            This is the point Jesus tries to teach in the gospel today: put supernatural goods over merely natural goods. A woman is clearly moved by Jesus’ holiness and wisdom and miracles, and she gushes about how wonderful it would be to be his mother, notice that’s a natural bond. She blurts out emotionally: “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts that nursed you.” But Jesus gently corrects her and invites her to higher and holier goods, saying: “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” In other words, natural, human family ties are good, but supernatural, spiritual ties are even better, because they last forever. To put it in modern language, Jesus was helping the woman to see that faith is better than football, and to desire heavenly goods over earthly ones.

             My friends, let me invite you – like Jesus invited the woman – to invest your time, talent and treasure into supernatural goods more than into natural goods. First, spent your time on spiritual growth: read the Bible daily, go on a retreat, pray the Rosary, go to Adoration, read spiritual authors. Just think of how much time we waste every day watching mindless T.V., or scrolling on our smart phones, or reading the tedious tabloids. This is the uncomfortable choice of Christianity. Second, talent. Have you ever encouraged your children (or grandchildren) to become a priest or a nun? Do you feel they might be wasting their talents in a religious vocation? Sometimes we call talented priests “Father-what-a-waste” because we feel he could have really been somebody successful in the world, but he wasted his life in religion. That’s the uncomfortable choice of Christianity. Third, treasure. Take out your checkbook or read your electronic bank statement and add up the money you spend on earthly pursuits and how much you spend on heavenly ones. By the way, here at Immaculate Conception, I’ve been blown away by the generosity of our parishioners. You truly put your money where your mouth is, your faith is not merely lip service. You happily make the uncomfortable choice of Christianity.

               Let me conclude with a quotation from Henri de Lubac, one of the most brilliant theologians of the last century, who saw that in the end it would take Christian heroes to make these uncomfortable choices. He wrote: “In the present state of the world, a virile, strong Christianity must become a heroic Christianity.” He went on to explain: “Gentleness and goodness, considerateness toward the lowly, pity for those who suffer, rejection of perverse methods, protection of the oppressed, unostentatious self-sacrifice, resistance to lies, the courage to call evil by its proper name, love of justice, the spirit of peace and concord, open-heartedness, mindfulness of heaven; these are the things that Christian heroism will rescue” (The Drama of Atheistic Humanism, 129).  In other words, it will take Christian heroes to choose faith over football.

Praised be Jesus Christ!