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| Philip Rivers |
(Twenty-seventh Sunday of the
Year (A): This homily was given on October 2, 2011 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-seventh Sunday 2011]
In the last line of today’s
second reading from Philippians 4, St. Paul writes these words: “Keep on doing
what you have learned and received and heard and seen IN ME. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Do you sense a bit of arrogance in
that statement? I mean, you have to
admit that it sounds a little prideful, does it not? Paul, in effect, is saying to the people of
Philippi, “My dear friends, if you want to know what it means to be a true,
dedicated, faithful follower of Jesus Christ, just look at me! Follow me around for awhile. Imitate my
example. See how I act in situations of temptation and stress and conflict. Listen to the things I say; watch how I treat
other people—and conduct yourselves accordingly. Then you’ll be good Christians, too.”
Well, let me offer you an
alternative interpretation this morning.
Rather than being filled with pride, I would say that Paul was filled
with what might be called ‘a saintly self-confidence’. He knew he was a sinner like everyone else—in
fact, in his first letter to Timothy he called himself “the worst of sinners”—but
by the time he wrote this letter to the Philippians he had been forgiven for the
major sins in his life and had completely turned away from them. And he was so confident in the way he was currently
living that he knew he could, in good conscience, be a true role model for the
Christians at Philippi. He didn’t have
any deep, dark secrets; he didn’t have any skeletons in his closet (so to
speak); he didn’t have to worry about causing scandal among the faithful. He was continually and consistently ‘fighting
the good fight and running the race and keeping the faith,’ so he had no qualms
whatsoever about encouraging the people of Philippi to imitate him.
Obviously our world today needs
more Christians like St. Paul, especially, I dare say, more MALE Christians
like him—since men are called to exercise many roles of leadership, especially
as fathers!
I had this thought after I read
an email last Friday from one of the female adults who attends our Thursday
night youth group. The previous evening
she had been present when I had the teens read an article about a man named Philip
Rivers. Now for those of you who are not
followers of the NFL, Philip Rivers is the star quarterback of the San Diego
Chargers football team. He’s also a very
committed Catholic. Earlier this year he
was the guest speaker at a Catholic men’s conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where
he did an interview with a representative of the Life Teen organization.
It was the transcript of that
interview that the teens and I read that particular Thursday night. Now what was somewhat amusing (at least it
was somewhat amusing to me) was the starry-eyed reaction that some of the
female teens had to Mr. Rivers. Needless
to say, they found the young quarterback to be very attractive—although it went
beyond looks. As this adult woman
reminded me in her email the following day, it was the ideas Rivers expressed
in his interview—his commitment to faith and prayer and marriage and family in
particular—that also appealed to many of the women who were present, young and
not-so-young. This female adult wrote,
“Our men need more prayer warrior role models.
Men like Philip Rivers and Jason Evert and others are rooted in prayer.
They have that solid foundation. They
are men who shout to the world, ‘Bring it on… we’ve got what it takes to win!’ That’s why we were all ‘goo-ing’ and ‘gaa-ing’
over Philip Rivers!”
Let me share with you now a few
excerpts from the Rivers interview.
These are some of the responses that had them ‘goo-ing’ and ‘gaa-ing’ (I’m
not sure those are real words, by the way, but they were in her email, so I’ll
use them to make the point).
The interviewer said, “So you grew up in a Catholic home, and you
took that into your adulthood as a football player. That’s pretty rare for professional
athletes. How did you do that?”
Rivers responded, “I was fortunate
to grow up in the faith; my mom taught me the faith. In North Alabama there were only like 15 of
us in my county in my confirmation class. We were quite the minority in Alabama. But one thing I remember is when I went to
college at North Carolina State, the biggest thing that stuck in my head from
my mom was never miss Mass. That was the
thing that she definitely got across. When
you go to college, that’s when the faith becomes your own. Your mom and dad aren’t waking you up and
reminding you, ‘Hey this a good day to go to confession.’ It’s up to you.”
He was asked about the challenges of getting to Mass on game day. His answer indicated that, like a true man of
God, he takes responsibility for his actions and makes sure he gets to Mass no
matter what. He said that he considers
it “special” to go to Mass on Sunday
before the game begins. I suppose you
could say his philosophy is “Pray before
you play.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if more Catholic parents had that
philosophy—especially Catholic parents here in Westerly whose children
participate in weekend sporting activities?
When Rivers was asked, “Is there any piece of advice that you would give
to high school young men?” his answer was very St. Paul-like. He said, “[I
would tell them to] Appreciate the
faith. Appreciate what we have and what a great gift the sacraments are. It’s hard to see that as a young man, but I
think that, again, [young men are called to be] the leaders of their age. They
grow in their faith and everybody will follow—both their girlfriends and
others. And then also, this can apply to
their faith but also to anything else they do. My dad always said that if you’re going to do
something, do it all the way. If you’re
going to be a Catholic man, be it all the way.
If you’re going to clean your room, clean it the right way. You know, all those little things add up and
they stick with you.”
And finally, regarding the temptations and challenges he faces as a pro
football player, Rivers said, “The biggest key to avoid those temptations
is not to put yourself in those situations. And it’s not just as a NFL player, it’s in any
work-place, in any city, anything you’re doing, anywhere after dark, after
midnight. I think it’s [in 1 Corinthians
15 where it] says ‘bad company corrupts good morals.’ If you’re not in the wrong, but you continue
to put yourself in tempting situations, eventually you may give in. So that’s always been something I’ve lived by
all the way through—don’t put yourself in those situations. Even though you may be strong enough to go
somewhere and not fall into the sin, avoiding it from the get-go will certainly
help.”
I should also add that I was pleasantly surprised to see that, when he talked
about his family life, Rivers explicitly mentioned NFP (Natural Family
Planning), and the positive impact that has had on his relationship with his
wife.
No artificial contraception for Mr. and Mrs. Philip Rivers.
He really IS a serious Catholic!
In fact, based on all that he said in this interview, it seems that Philip
Rivers is even more serious about his faith than he is about football (which is
saying a lot, because he’s an extremely
intense player—one of the most intense in the entire National Football
League!).
I ask you to join me today in praying for him that he will remain a
committed Catholic throughout his life—because it’s not a given! He could give in to one of those temptations
he talked about and turn away from God in an instant, if he chose to.
He has free will just like the rest of us!
Let’s pray that he’ll stay the course, and grow in his faithfulness to
the Lord each and every day, so that eventually he’ll be able to say to his
children and to his grandchildren and to the other people in his life the same
words that St. Paul said to the Philippians in this reading: “Keep on
doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen IN ME. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Let’s pray that he’ll be able to
say those words as Paul did—with saintly
self-confidence.
And, while we’re at it, let’s also pray for ourselves and for one another
during this Mass, that we’ll be able to do the very same thing.
