Jimmy’s high school was known throughout the state as having
the best football team anywhere to be found. It was a rare year that they didn’t
win the state championship. Recruiters from colleges across the country often
made stops to watch his team play and every year three or four players were
offered scholarships. What made his football team so good? Practice.
The team started practices the week after the fourth of July
holiday and went six days a week. Twice-a-days started in August which often
became three-a-days if the team did not perform up to expectation. The only two
excuses the coach would accept for missing a practice was that you were in the
hospital or dead. The football players could not have summer jobs or go away on
vacation with their families. Football was life and it was serious stuff.
What was all this practice done for? Eight games. The high
school football year consisted of eight games. The players would practice six
days a week, eight to twelve hours a day, for months to play eight games.
What is more important – a football game or the state of
your soul? Do you practice your faith constantly or do you just show up for the
“game” on Sunday? Doing something over and over again and expecting different
results is not the definition of insanity as it is so often said to be. It is
the definition of practice. We practice in the hopes that our repeated action
brings about a change, a different result. Showing up on Sunday solely because
it is an obligation or because that is what we have always done does not make
one a better Christian. What makes a better Christian is the same thing that
makes Jimmy’s football team so good. Practice. We must constantly practice our
faith.
Many mistakenly believe that our Sunday services, be that a
Mass or other gathering, is our game day. But when we gather in community it is
not for the game but in preparation for the game. Game day for the Christian is
every day of our lives. We gather together in community to give thanks, become
renewed, and to prepare ourselves for the week ahead.
We perform the way we practice. If we actively participate
in Mass, offering ourselves fully to God, we will perform better than the
person just phoning it in. It is the difference between the championship team
and the one that seldom wins a game. It is the difference between a scholarship
to an Ivy League university or attending a community college. Where we spend
eternity is so much more important than winning eight games. How we practice
our faith should be equally as important.
