Jim Mahoney's Blog - Sacred to Etc.

Olympics Cycling and Following Jesus

I was greatly saddened by the recent death of Stephen Covey. This good and brilliant individual helped millions of people through his writings, especially his first major book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I was fortunate to receive the Covey training in a number of areas and had the great privilege of being part of a group to whom he taught his eighth habit for the first time. His work has affected so many things that I do - and also serves as an irritating nudge of what I still need to do and how I need to do it.

One of his habits is "begin with the end in mind." This is, in essence, what God says to us when we come into the world. The end that God has in mind for us is heaven. This is our goal. It requires a lifelong focus and really should be one of the main criteria that we use to make our decisions. What a simple, but profound, way to look at life: Is this going to get me into heaven or not? When we get off focus, that is when and why we need to listen to the Scriptures, to listen to holy people, to pray, and to be sure that we are walking with God.

It is hard to keep this focus. Covey wants us to develop this habit in so many major things we do in life. Frankly, it is exhausting. There are so many distractions that blur the focus, so many times when it is just easier to do the easy thing. Spiritually, at the end of each day, it is a good thing to simply think about the day and our focus on heaven, the end God has in mind for us.

This came to me while I was watching part of the Cycling competition at the Olympics. While I am sure it is exciting (perhaps in the final mile), it does seem to be rather boring to watch. I could never watch whole thing. Just look at this vision for four hours at least:

 Nonetheless, it is a way to understand our goal in following Jesus. We are all in this huge pack, multitude, heading for the end point. Once in a while, people move ahead of the pack and get closer (we call them saints). Some are stragglers. We pray harder for them. Yet each of the cyclists keeps going unless they crash - and even then we pray that they will get going again.

It is easy to crash. It is easy to burn out. It is easy to give up. It is easy to lose heart. The cyclists are helped over these great distances by simply being in the pack, picking up energy and momentum from each other. That is always a major function of the Church. We get energy and momentum when we come together for Mass. We get energy and momentum from the Eucharist, from the grace of God. Look around at Church - every single person is a sinner. Look around at the cyclists - every single one has done things that weren't perfect during the long distance. But they keep going - and so must we.

By making gentle jest of these competitions, I am in no way disparaging the extraordinary commitment that the athletes have, the unyielding determination, and the phenomenal focus on excellence. This may shock you, but I was never a formidable athlete. So I respect them and, in truth, am a little jealous of them. But I am proud of our fellow citizens who are in the Olympics and those who, though falling a little short, nonetheless succeeded well beyond most of us in keeping their end in mind. (Heck, when I was their age, I had a paper route - not exactly the Olympics!)

Begin with the end in mind. A practical goal for an Olympian, a necessary goal for a Christian. While watching the cycling seems like an event that will never end, living the way of Jesus does have an end point - heaven. May we all help each other reach that goal. That's our gold medal. 

 

The Olympics, The Queen, James Bond, and Me

Every time that the Olympics come around, I do not have the slightest interest in watching them. By the time that they are over, I have been totally taken up into the competition, drawn into the stories on TV whose sole purpose is to drawn you into the everyday lives of athletes who are anything but ordinary, and then I begin to cheer for certain people to win - usually those wearing the red, white, and blue.

Deep down, I have often wondered if anyone could be an Olympian. Can the luge really be that difficult? How hard is it to compete in the shot put? What's the big deal about curling? How hard is it to play badminton? Can there be anything easier than table tennis? An eternity ago, I went on Outboard Bound where I rappelled down cliffs, did rope courses, spent three days on an island by myself, and went through other indignities that I have little intention of ever doing again.

With all this as background, last night I watched the opening ceremonies. Olympic opening ceremonies and Super Bowl halftime shows have the same appeal for me - a time to concentrate on other things. The pageants about moving from an agrarian age to an industrial age were eminently boring. The highlights of certain parts of British history did not keep me spellbound. But then everything changed.

Queen Elizabeth said good evening to James Bond and parachuted into the stadium. That held my attention. Who could forget this graceful and dignified moment last night?

Without meaning the slightest disrespect to Her Majesty, the old girl done good. I always thought she was stuffy. There had to be more texture to her life than scampering corgis. Do I care what she did? Of course not. Her country's ancestors gave the Irish people the Potato Famine. Do not think that I have forgotten this. (forgive, of course, but forget - nah)

What the queen's heavenly descent into the stadium actually did for me is that it focused my attention on the Olympics. I have always been fascinated with those who achieve excellence - in any walk of life. Not one Olympic athlete reaches the games without years of preparation, focus, sacrifice, endurance, and pain. (hmmmm, somewhat similar to preparing for heaven)

It is so easy to simply react to life - and let life take you along its merry ways. It is so much harder, but so much better, to respond to life, to plan, to practice, to take every necessary change to improve and to grow.

This is as true of practical things in life as it is of spiritual things in life. We have all met people who died at thirty and were buried at eighty. Is that why God created them? I don't think so.

During the time of the Olympics, I'm going to reflect on some qualities that appeal to me in these athletess or contests. This might be an incredibly boring, self-indulgent exercise, but hopefully not.

For a couple of weeks, our world acts as if we are united. The five Olympic rings represent the five continents of the earth. Countries at war still send athletes to the Olympics. There is a moral here somewhere.

My only regret thus far is that baseball is no longer an Olympic sport. Then the entire world could have seen why the Chicago Cubs are the greatest baseball team on earth.

I've been in somewhat of a funk for a while. Maybe this can nudge/jolt me out of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Colorado - We Can Only Turn to God - Once Again

Homily, July 22, 2012

In this Mass, every Mass, and at other times, we pray the Lord’s Prayer. We ask God to “deliver us from evil.” This is not an empty pious phrase. Rather it is a phrase that strikes at the reality of evil which we learned about in the first pages of the Scriptures when Cain killed his brother Abel, when people did evil things throughout history, when the Son of God was crucified on the cross, and ever since when evil deeds were done against the innocent. When we see evil, it is searing. When we hear of evil, it is jolting. Jesus came to help us in our battle against evil. Evil is real.

Tragedies like Aurora, Colorado are two-edged swords. On the one edge, we vow that our country must change, our lives will change, that we will be grateful, that we will pray, that we will stay close to God, and remind each other how much we love them and take no one for granted. But on the other edge, it grows dull - - we forget. In today’s Gospel, Jesus observed that the people were like sheep without a shepherd. They were overwhelmed by life. They needed perspective. So do we.

I will never understand how people can defend the right to sell specific weapons whose only purpose is to kill large numbers of people. Politicians are afraid to address this. We cannot change this. So we are left with the only thing to do when we are powerless - turn back to God. Nothing else is possible.

The difference and change we seek really begins in us. Come back to the one who reminds us: The Lord is my shepherd. Be not afraid. I will never abandon you. I will love you with an everlasting love. Deliver us from evil.

Let’s resurrect the promises so many of us made at the time of 9/11 and other times since that evil. Those promises seemed to recede into the background. So let’s repeat them – and maybe, just maybe, they can sink in.

Life can be so fragile. Deliver us from evil. Put more time into your family and
friends. 

Promise to take out of your vocabulary phrases like “one of these days” and “someday.” You and I have a moral obligation to be happy. That is what “blessed” means? What do we do each day? Sure, life can often be a struggle. To say – be happy – is not simply a mindless slogan – it is a major part of our faith – and our trust in God. We must make being happy and celebrating each moment even more
important than all the things we do. We all spend so much time doing things that just may not last and, in truth, really do not matter.

Stop putting things off with people you love. How tragic when we put off or postpone or think that we can do it later. Often we do not. Now we must do it. Every day, hour, and minute is so special – on God’s time - and we do not know how many more there will be – no one does - ever – but we can change -  now.

We have become anesthetized to evil. Evil must be challenged. In light of Colorado and all the other horrors, we cannot let our lives continue the way that they have. We cannot let the critical and urgent replace the important, by allowing wonderful things to be pushed aside by schedules and activities that, a month or year from now, no one will even remember or miss.

We don’t live life alone. The shepherd leads us. We must be on God’s side.

Deliver us from evil. That is what it is about. Remove from your life the phrase, next time, – replace it with three words: do it now.

Every single day, let your family, your friends, your colleagues know that you love them. If you’ve hurt someone, make it better, now. If someone has hurt you, forgive them, now. We all need to stop playing the game that tomorrow always comes. For 12 people in Colorado, it did not. We know neither the day nor the hour.

Jesus says to us - - come back home. Change your life. I’ll help you. I’m your shepherd. If I can forgive you, then you can forgive each other” – Now.

Don’t walk, run to each other. Every single day.

And - America - God shed his grace on thee.