As some of you may know, I like sports. I follow my baseball team, the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers with great joy, but I also enjoy the other beautiful game; soccer. Whether it is our own San Jose Earthquakes or the teams I follow in Europe or Mexico, watching a good soccer match is food for the soul.

The last few years in the English Premier League, I am a short suffering Everton fan, two teams, Liverpool and Manchester City, have dominated with winning point totals (over 100 in some years) that have reached historic levels. This year seems to be different, not just because of the pandemic or the empty stadia but there seems to be a more level playing field. We hear the pundits and the coaches and managers of the teams complain about the number of games, the tiredness of the teams that are playing multiple competitions and the growing number of injuries as the reason for the much tighter race for the league, the number of teams that are near the top and the surprising results of teams beating and holding at bay the mighty Man City and Liverpool teams of the past few years.

What they and many of us seem to forget that this is not and oddity but rather it is the normal. Every once in a while you have a great and dominant team, like the 2020 World Champion Dodgers, (I get to say that for a whole year) but in most years there is a hard fought battle with the perceived best team in the league and those who are chasing them. It is often a reality in our minds that we forget the long history as our memories hold on to the glories or the sufferings but forget the import middle, the long road that ultimately gets you to where you want to be.
Which is a very long way to getting us to God, faith and the long and winding road of conversion and hope. If where we want to be is Heaven, then there is only one road and that is the road of life. We can’t avoid it and there are no short cuts. This year has certainly shone a light on the need to be steady and secure in what we believe and how we act towards one another and even how we treat our self in these times of stress. There are some years when it seems easy but clearly this isn’t one of those years.
We might listen to the wisdom of Dorothy Day, “Most cradle Catholics have gone through, or need to go through, a second conversion which binds them with a more mature love and obedience to the Church.” I think she would also add: a third, a fourth, a fifth etc… As we know and understand God more and more we find ourselves in the winding road of conversion and hopefulness. We seek a deeper and truer meaning to life found only in the acceptance of a greater will and a more beautiful grace than our poor human endeavors can ever create.

What does this look like? I was talking with a parish family a few weeks ago about what has changed. They described what sounded like a six month fast and decluttering of their life. The sense was that in all the frustrations, the angers, the loneliness they had been shaken off their comfortable stool and allowed to roam about in a room they could discover anew. They didn’t deny they tragedy of loosing work, having a close friend die of the virus and the economic pain their family is going through but they also saw a greater reliance on the providence of God’s powerful grace leading them through the healing and growth in faith they began to understand is necessary. It is what a very wise priest once told me long ago when I was struggling, “Relax, slow down and let God catch up.” We can’t run ahead in life, we must walk with Jesus.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

“Heaven is filled with converted sinners of all kinds, and there is room for one more.”—St. Joseph Cafasso