Good morning! It’s a chilly winter morning… in the 20s "up north" as we Miamians used to call it! Now I’m a Lake Placid girl and it’s 50ish and I’m chilly! Keep warm and safe my dear readers!!! This weekend we watched a great football match. Chuck and I have been watching football since the late 60s. He was very interested in the scrambling techniques of Fran Tarkenton whose running skills to protect his own life led to 3 Super Bowls for the Purple People Eaters in the 1970s. At the same time we were watching the likes of Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, and the great years of the Miami Hurricanes and Dolphins. Football is often related as a gladiator sport. There is one leader who hopes his team performs to his calls! One leader who can become a legend bouyed up by his team. He can’t perform alone. This weekend we saw Drew Brees and Tom Brady compete. Some people don’t like Brady because he has done some questionable things to win, but he’s still playing and he and Brees share between them some awesome records. Put a ball in the air and, if the right man is at the other end, Score! The game this weekend was tough as I was cheering for both men who could be my sons…! My mother used to do that! "Oh that was a great play!" she would say excitedly! "Mom! that’s the wrong team! They are the enemy!" we would shout!!! "But it was a good play!" Mom taught us a lesson…. it’s the great play we should be cheering!!! Great men are playing here! There will be great plays! Enjoy it! There were great plays this weekend. I loved best when Brees walked off the field and Jameis Winston came to stand off to the side on the line. The trick play resulted in 7 points and made Drew Brees laugh. He needed a good laugh as I think he was hurting. He was playing injured; hit too many times in the ribs.
Today’s reading at Mass was from the Gospel of Mark 2:23: When they were hungry, David left the battlefield to find food for his companions, and he shared the the Bread of Offering in the Tent of Meeting with his companions. Our priest explained that our word companion comes from Cum Panis: "To share or break bread with." Jesus walked through a wheat field with his companions, and in their hunger, they broke off stalks of wheat to eat. Pharisees complained that they were breaking the Sabbath Law. Jesus advised them to think back to David feeding his men the most sacred bread. "The Sabbath was made for men," Jesus replied. Give them bread. It doesn’t matter what day it is; they are hungry. Jesus might have had these words in his heart: "Come share the Bread with me," but the Pharisees couldn’t hear that. When great people meet in conflict, they can’t see each other or the needs of their companions. The Pharisees couldn’t "see" Jesus. Only one man can win. He either eliminates his enemy, or he and his team execute better and win the way. Only one man wins. (So the gladiator Drew Brees walked off the field having lost the combat.) Only one man wins and the other leaves the field of combat.
UNLESS we agree to work together to pool our resources and talents! I’ll bet you know where I’m going with this rather convoluted story! Why can’t we pool our talents and resources? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the group that has been fighting Covid for almost a year could sit at the table and share the bread with the new team? "Here’s what we learned. Here’s what we did wrong. Here’s what we think could be changed, but we just couldn’t get to it." Don’t slink off! Stay and help. Make one great team for America. But breaking bread, Cum Panis, just can’t be for everybody. Our work often ends in competition and bitterness. One seeks to defeat the other. Watch two children shouting at each other and one slinks off. The other stands there and looks confused or arrogant! The questions are written on faces: "Why did he walk off? What made him so mad? Ha! I got him!" I’m not asking the President to stay. Often the old President meets with the new President and gives him a letter and shares secrets with the new President. That won’t happen this time. He’s too angry. I’m not asking Drew Brees to stay as I think he’s injured. He needs to heal and move on. Same with the current President. He needs to heal. But I am asking for those of us who aren’t out of control angry or injured to work together, to seek solutions for Covid vaccine distribution, for hunger in America and for jobs in America. God bless us. Angels with us.