Football and Community

It is the most glorious of September Saturdays and I am in fortunate possession of a donated ticket to a Notre Dame University football game. Eight of us lucky Northeast Ohio residents make the 4-hour trip to South Bend to enjoy what we anticipate as the classic Notre Dame experience in what was once—over one hundred years ago—a cornfield with little obvious promise of greatness or success as the Holy Cross priests threw the stake in the ground and declared: “This will become our college!” Having spent most of my ministry in higher education, I confess to loving college sports. Collegiate Football Championships excite me. March Madness throws me into wild speculation at best. With the inclusion of women’s sports in colleges, I am now over-the-top and hoarse from cheering. So, I was especially happy to be at Notre Dame this past weekend where earlier in the week one of my sisters in community, the late Sr. John Miriam Jones, SC, was honored because she was appointed assistant provost with the charge to direct the school through the change from an all-male student roster to that of accepting women students in the 1970’s. The ceremonial tree dedication in her memory took place outside Baden Hall with President, Fr. Robert Dowd and former President, “Monk” Malloy, officiating. Dowd said Sister John Miriam “directed the change with an impressive blend of imagination, grace, and humor.”  The fifty-year celebration of Notre Dame Women in Sports was the theme throughout the game’s opening ceremonies as well.

On this particular Saturday, however, the universe seemed to shrink into a setting of families laughing, playing, eating the repast of tailgate food, recalling memories of past games, showing off their wearing apparel with an infinite number of designs centered on the Notre Dame insignia. Some families with conflicted loyalties hoisted the Notre Dame flag along with the Purdue University flag on their vans. (Notre Dame was playing Purdue that day.) At one point I stopped to look and reflect: Heaven must be like this. Everyone is joyful. Neighbors are helping neighbors and swapping delicacies as they ate. “Here try this. You’ll like it.” And “I’ll move my chairs tighter here so you can fit better into your space.” Some groups had hired Irish bands to entertain their tailgating friends. Along the walk to the stadium a very young lad looking very much like a young Tinker in the Aran Islands, played a button box crouched on his knees. Attendees came from all generations. Some walked swiftly, some skipped, some cobbled with a walker. Everyone was smiling or laughing. 

Reflection

Sometimes we absorb the grace of glimpsing into what God has meant our lives to be. I felt that glimpse of heaven among people gathered for a football game. Sun-drenched joy, enthusiasm, camaraderie. Notre Dame is a small university with only 8,880 undergraduates and 4,162 graduate students. Still, it is a Research 1 School for doctoral students. What I felt and experienced on its campus was a spirit, a charism taught and absorbed over its 182 years of existence. It is what we need to make in our parish communities. Notre Dame makes a community. I know that other schools do the same. You see, Richard Rohr, OFM, says, “On my own, I don’t know how to believe that I am a child of God. It is being together in our wholeness, with the entire body of Christ, that makes it somehow easier to believe that we are beautiful.”  He continues, “we, in our corporate wholeness, are the glory of God, the goodness of God, the presence of God. As an individual, I participate in the wholeness, and that is holiness!” It’s not my private holiness, says Rohr; “it’s our connectedness together.”

I’m sure none of the people at this game thought of themselves as holy at the time; but they had to feel the connectedness with each other if they gave any thought to the community surrounding them. Notre Dame has fostered this community over the years. I’m thinking it has drawn community from the teachings of the Gospel, from the dedication to Mary, the Mother of Christ, whose statue stands atop the Golden Dome demonstrating her protection over this school. This same community inspires the team to kneel in the unity of prayer before and after every game. I am also sure there are many faults with Notre Dame because it is an institution of human beings, but faults must always be acknowledged, addressed, and lifted from the soul. From what I know about Notre Dame, it does just that.

This week you might want to consider some of these questions to determine if you make efforts to create community or make your relevant communities reflect the beauty and wholesomeness of our eternal home.

Have I ever experienced an assembly or event where I could feel its similarity to eternal life?

Have I ever contributed to a group which inspired its members to be happy or satisfied or feel they were part of something greater than themselves?

What do I think is needed to make a group I care about (family, neighborhood, church, school, etc.) feel like a union of togetherness for a common purpose?

Share your thoughts on this subject. It will help or inspire other readers.

Quotes from Richard Rohr taken from “Our Faith is in Community” Daily Meditation, May 24, 2021.