In the game of life, are you a spectator or a player?
I was a perpetual bench sitter on the b-team basketball team in the high school seminary. I think the coach was kind in letting me be on the team. but I was never good enough to do much but sit and watch the games from the sidelines. And if the truth were told, I think I liked it there. Even though you couldn’t effect the outcome of the game from there, your identity wasn’t destroyed each time your team suffered a loss. There was no such thing as personal failure from the bench. Sure, you’d feel sorry as for the team, but it wasn’t as if it was something I did that contributed to the loss (or the win, for that matter). It was pretty safe, sitting there on the bench…
If you read today’s gospel, you discover there’s not much room for bench sitters… The classic figures are the parents of the blind man, aren’t they? When pressed by the Pharisees, instead of sticking up for their own son, they choose to stay on the bench. “Ask him, he is of age…” John tells us the reason for their choosing to stay on the bench – they could be expelled from the synagogue. So, rather than risk that, (and it is a huge risk in a society where social status plays so much of a role) they remain on the sidelines, uninvolved.
The blind man, who has spent his entire life metaphorically on the bench, sidelined from much of life by his inability to see, gradually moves into a starting role. The more the Pharisees press him, the more resolute he becomes as a player. We see that progression in the titles he uses. “The man called Jesus”, ‘a prophet’; ‘a man from God’; and finally, “Lord”. It is as if he senses he has finally has the chance to make a difference, to not sit on the bench because of the person of Jesus and what he did for him. “I was blind, but now I see.” It becomes the bedrock experience of faith for him. He repeats it over and over again, each time, gaining new confidence, new strength. What this man did for me – it is enough to believe in. It is enough to follow. Once he accepts that truth as a starting point, he cannot but not be involved in life. “Who is he, that I may believe in him?” “He stands here in front of you.” “I do believe Lord…” And he is no longer on the sidelines, no longer a spectator, but a player.
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In ways that none of us could have imagined at the beginning of this month, most of us are about to become spectators, bench sitters, shelter in place people, starting tomorrow by mandate of Gov. Parsons. And the temptation is to be just that – people stuck on the bench, in a holding pattern, waiting for… whenever this will end.
Like me, sitting on the bench in high school, the danger is to shelter in place psychologically as well – to stay on the sidelines – to be a passive victim to these days, to stop the whole endeavor of our larger life’s picture because I am confined to being at home.
Or, we can choose a different way of seeing. Of Not being blind to the opportunity before us. Of witnessing to love and connection and taking control of our faith journey. Here might be THREE options.
- Now, when people ask you, how are you doing – you can tell them the truth. Struggling with this new normal. But turning to God a whole lot more. Praying a lot more. Thinking a lot more about my life and where it is heading… And I am finding that when I stay in the present moment, God is MORE than ENOUGH. Witness to faith
- To become holier in a practical way. Let me share from my pastor’s pen, once again, the quote from Pope Francis: “Don’t waste these difficult days,” “We must rediscover the concreteness of little things, small gestures of attention we can offer those close to us, our family, our friends,” “We must understand that in small things lies our treasure. These gestures of tenderness, affection, compassion are minimal and tend to be lost in the anonymity of everyday life, but they are nonetheless decisive, important. For example, a hot meal, a letter, a hug, a phone call…. They are familiar gestures of attention to the details of everyday life that make life meaningful and that create communion and communication amongst us.” (in Italy, people are serenading their neighbors and health care workers from balconies.) DO NOT WASTE THESE DAYS.
- Someone described this time as a HUGE, WORLD WIDE RESET button. On how we do just about everything. Some of you, by necessity, will have to become TEACHERS. Tutors. Mentors to your friends when you know how to do algebra and explain it and they don’t. Others, by necessity, babysitter extraordinaires. Can’t some us start dreaming about how to come OUT of this situation different than when we started. Will take an act of will. But what a chance.
I was blind, now I see. I was a spectator, now I’m an actor. I will be sheltering in place, and now… Well that is up to you.