Archive for February 12th, 2022

Blessed Are You 2-13-2022

Saturday, February 12th, 2022

A college lacrosse coach had heard about a high school
player who had all the tools. The coach went to see the student play and
then met with him after the game, offering a scholarship to play for his
team. The student was interested, but declined, telling the coach he
wanted to wait until next spring before making a formal commitment.
But he did give the coach a verbal commitment to play for him in the
fall. The coach said he would hold the scholarship for one year.
Throughout the fall and winter, many college recruiters came to
watch the student play, hoping to sign him up. The student turned them
all down.
When spring arrived, the coach met with the student again and the
student accepted the scholarship. The coach asked why he waited so
long to make his decision.
The student explained, “Coach, I don’t know if you noticed, but a
lot of colleges come to see me play each week. Most of my teammates
weren’t getting scholarship offers or even being recruited earlier this
year, but now they are. By me not committing anywhere, all the college
coaches who were coming to see me play get a chance to discover how
good some of my teammates really are. If I signed early with you, all
the other coaches would’ve stopped coming to the games and none of
my teammates would’ve gotten recruited.”
The coach was stunned. At an age when most young people are
ambitious and self-absorbed, this 17-year-old was already thinking how
he could help other people realize their own hopes and dreams.
This student mirrors the “blessed” of today’s Gospel. In Luke’s
Gospel, the “blessed” are those who see beyond their own needs and
wants in the present moment to work for a better future not only for
themselves but for other – but “woe” to those, Jesus warns, who seek
their own “fill” now with no concern for the future or for others. In this
“Sermon on the Plain” Jesus challenges us to put aside the “woe” of self-
centeredness and embrace the “blessedness” that can only be
experienced by seeing ourselves not as the center of the world but as a
means for transforming the world for the “blessedness” of all. Jesus
calls us to measure our life’s worth not in terms of wealth or power or
fame but to embrace a vision and perspective of life that honors humility
and compassion, that places the common good before our own, that frees
us from the pursuit of the things of this world in order to seek the lasting
things of God.