Sunday Reflection, January 7: The Football Fans’ Search for Hope

Feast of the Epiphany

Scripture Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/010707.shtml
Isaiah 60: 1-6
Psalm 72
Ephesians 3: 2-3a, 5-6
Matthew 2: 1-12

While I was at home in Virginia at Christmastime, I went to the movies with some of my family members. We saw the film “We Are Marshall.” This movie is based on the true story of Marshall University, a fairly small college in the little town of Huntington, West Virginia. In November of 1970, a chartered plane carrying the Marshall football team, its coaches, staff and some fans, crashed outside of the Huntington airport killing everyone on board. As a sports fan all of my life, I remember reading about that incident and the aftermath.

The movie chronicles the story of the terrible grief of a university and a town. The people of Huntington identified closely with the school and its football team, so the loss was felt very deeply. Moreover, some beloved citizens of the town had also died in the crash, as well as sons of town families. One figure that is featured in the film is the owner of the steel mill in Huntington and chair of the Board of Trustees of the college. His son, a running back for the team, died in the crash. Having lost his wife some years earlier, this man is now completely bereft and does not know what to do with his grief. He withdraws from others and struggles to find a way to go on with his life.

The question of whether to re-start the football program at the school becomes emblematic of how to deal with grief. Some town residents and college officials are adamant in their stance against resurrecting the football program. They feel that it would be an insult to the deceased and would, in any event, be entirely unsuccessful. Others – residents and students (including four football players whose injuries had kept them off the plane the year before) -- are convinced that they must start over and field a team for the next year. They must begin anew. Eventually, to the chagrin of some of the trustees, the college president hires a new coach and obtains permission from the NCAA to play freshmen on the varsity team the following year.

There is one scene in “We Are Marshall” that came to my mind as I thought about the readings for the Feast of the Epiphany. (I promise that I will not give away the ending of the movie!) It is the scene of the team’s first home game in the fall of 1971, the year after the plane crash. They have lost their first game on the road, suffering a rather embarrassing defeat at the hands of a more seasoned team. Given that loss and the ambivalence of the town about this new team, it is not clear whether there will be much of a crowd at all at this first home game. But the coach stares out his window before the game and sees a huge crowd of people walking toward the stadium from their cars and filling up the stands. Almost the entire town has journeyed to the stadium for this first game of a new era.

“We Are Marshall” will probably not win any Academy Awards this year. But it does make a good effort at dealing with the aftermath of a human tragedy. And that image of people flocking to the stadium from all directions stayed with me after I left the film. It seemed that they were coming to that stadium not just to see a football game but in search of hope. They were looking for a new future in the midst of the deep pain of loss. Having spent a year enveloped in the darkness of grief, they were yearning for a light to lead them forward.

In this Sunday’s Scripture readings, this image of a vast crowd coming from afar is very prominent. In the reading from the Book of Isaiah, the prophet envisions a day when people will journey to Jerusalem from afar so that they may know the one true God. In the Gospel reading, the magi come from afar looking for the King of the Jews. They are searching for the one who will bring light and hope to a wounded humanity. The first to pay homage to Jesus are these Gentiles from the East. Scripture scholars point out to us that this scene in the second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel anticipates something Jesus will say later in the Gospel: “Many will come from East and West and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (8:11). The magi come following a sign of nature (the star) and then seeking guidance from the Scriptures, as it is given to them by the Jewish chief priests and scribes. Their delight and reverence at finding the child are manifest in their prostrating themselves before him and offering him the treasures they have brought with them. These magi represent all people who are searching for hope in their lives, all who are looking for the light of God to shine in their lives.

I believe that we can see ourselves in these magi. We might even be able to recognize the entire human family in them. In a world that continues to be scarred by violence, we seek the one who offers the gift of his peace. In a culture that, though a source of many blessings, is also darkened by greed, disrespect for life, and unbridled competition, we search for the one who will illumine us with the light of God’s truth and God’s compassion. In our personal and family lives, where loss and alienation are often painful realities, we yearn for the one who can show us the way to a new future marked by healing and reconciliation.

Each one of us is found in these magi, journeying from afar to find the newborn King of the Jews. And, while we still experience the struggles and hardships of that journey, we can also be joyful and grateful. We can give thanks not because we have found him but because he has found us. Christ has found us and called us. He has invited us to live in his presence and to allow him to continue to give us hope and light in our darkness.

This recognition of our being found by Christ is a grace, a gift of inestimable value. In the second reading for this Sunday, the apostle speaks of the “stewardship of God’s grace.” What a marvelous thought: being a steward of the grace of God! Each of us is called to be just that – a steward, a grateful caretaker of the gift of God’s love and light poured out in Christ. As the apostle says, we are called to be that not just for ourselves but for the benefit of others. May we continue to come to Christ to find hope, light, and peace in our lives. May we give thanks for the grace of his finding us. And may we be stewards of that grace for the benefit of others.

Fr. Robin Ryan, cp