Article 14: What Catholic Priests Can Learn from Good Coaches?
I played college football and played team sports all of my life. And the coaches who were most effective, not always the most liked, were those that called us players to action. The coaches who knew that we could do one more rep; or dig a little deeper; or sacrifice a little more. You didn’t always like those coaches; not at the moment, but they were always the ones that were most effective, that helped you to really get where you wanted to get.
Today’s Catholic Pastors could learn something from these effective coaches. Too often, today’s Pastors, many of whom are 50 and older, seem to use their pulpits as a way to preach about a God who is really loving…………………………………..
Leaves you aching for something after loving, doesn’t it? Too often, Catholic preaching has turned into telling us about how darned loving God is. Though true, this message is incomplete. Its as if Catholic preachers think that if we just understood how much God loves us, then we would get our lives straightened out.
Catholic preachers apparently don’t realize how dumb us parishioners are. Or more appropriately, how hungry we are. Catholics are hungry for Priests who will finish the above sentence. Because God loves you so much you need to do X or Y!
In short, I think many Catholics are hungry for Priests who will tell us that because God loves us so much, it is our duty to “Go take the Damned Hill for God!”. Whatever “Taking the Hill for God” means.
Maybe it means to stop sinning in a particular way, or to sacrifice more or to live a simpler life or to stand up more heroically for the unborn, or the marginalized. Whatever it is, Catholics are hungry for a true call to action from their Pastors.
The Priests ought to take the end of the Mass as an opportunity to remind us that we are what we eat; and now that we have received Jesus in the Eucharist, we need to leave this Church today and go be Jesus for others.
So why don’t we hear more about this from our Catholic Pastors? Either they never had a good coach or they are scared?
They are scared that if they preach the truth and demand goodness and sacrifice from their parishioners….that certain parishioners will get mad at them.
These parishioners will get mad, stop donating as much to the church, go find a different church, stop attending church alltogether.
And thus, in an effort to keep our pews filled with lukewarm Catholics who numb their way through life, we have stopped teaching the Good News to them.
And the good news is this. That God is close to these people through Jesus. That if they want to experience God as close, they must follow Jesus. That following Jesus is hard, demands sacrifice, demands not sinning, demands love of neighbor, demands courage. Yes, Jesus always extends forgiveness to us if we ask. But asking can be hard, and his Way is the Way of the Cross.
And when some Pastors begin preaching the truth, will they lose some folks? I bet they do. But they will gain some folks too.
Or maybe the Priests are not scared? Maybe they just didn’t play enough sports when they were kids; and maybe they never had the pleasure of having really great coaches, like I did. If that’s the case, then I will give the Pastors some free advice.
Don’t ever be afraid to ask people, made in the Divine Image of God, to push themselves. Do me the honor and respect to ask me to go beyond what I thought was possible. Hold me to a high standard. Ask me to be a Saint. And if you do that, I may get tired, and winded, and even a little annoyed….but after I develop the spiritual muscles to deal with it, I will have only one thing to say in response:
“Put me in coach, I’m ready to….go take the damned hill for God!”
