For me, it was a catcher’s mitt.
I was probably 12 years old and my allegiance to the Cincinnati Reds baseball team was already solid.
Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan … they were part of a truly historic lineup that would make my 12th year on Earth a fabulous experience.
Just imagine, in 1976, we celebrated our nation’s 200th birthday … Indiana University’s basketball team had a perfect season that culminated in a national championship … and my beloved Reds won the World Series!
For a kid growing up in Indiana, this was huge.
So as my birthday rolled around, I thought long and hard about the perfect gift, or at least what a 12-year-old boy might think was a perfect present to unwrap on a warm, August day.
A new catcher’s mitt.
I wanted to be a catcher like my biggest Reds hero, Johnny Bench. I just knew that if I had a mitt, I could refine my skills, become a solid cleanup hitter and go on to have a famous career of my own.
My parents, no doubt eager to shut me up, got me the coveted catcher’s mitt and I spent many long days playing pitch-n-catch with my older brother, Mike.
The perfect gift … what else would I need in life?
Forty-some years later, of course, I realize there is no such thing as a perfect gift in a box on your birthday. There is just one, the gift of our Lord, through whom we can obtain eternal salvation.
Today, on Holy Mother Church’s liturgical calendar, we honor St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest theologians and a Doctor of the Church who gave us all many gifts through his writings.
I write today about my obsession with a baseball mitt – which was actually more an obsession with fame and notoriety, which would certainly have come if I had grown up to be a Major League Baseball player – because the life of St. Augustine is like a case study of a man who chased after many obsessions before finally realizing the truth.
Here’s the big quote that we all know: “Our hearts are restless, Oh Lord, until they rest in you.”
But here’s a quote that we may have forgotten: “Give me chastity and continence … but not yet.”
We can all identify points in our lives where we have spent more time and energy chasing after other things, rather than chasing after God. Fame, fortune, the perfect job, the perfect spouse, political power … the list can be long.
We can also identify people in our lives today that we see chasing after these things, rather than simply accepting the best gift of all. They are not unlike Augustine, or many other saints and good people in our history.
Which brings us to another lesson from the life of Augustine, that of being patient in our desires to see our friends and loved ones finally accept the peace in their hearts by turning around and coming home to God. I am betting that each one of you reading this today have a list with the names of at least a handful of people that you pray for each day.
Keep up the good work.
St. Monica – Augustine’s mother – was the poster parent for patience. She is honored for her many prayers for a conversion of her son’s heart. We can learn a lot from her, especially when it comes to our own children.
In our readings today, both the first reading and the Gospel touch on the frivolity of chasing after other gods.
Paul writes in Thessalonians …
“For they themselves openly declare about us what sort of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.”
And in the Gospel, Jesus adds this …
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’ Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred?
“And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’ You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.”
So where do our passions lie today?
We know where they should be focused. Earthly pleasures are only going to get us so far …
And yet, it’s still difficult to resist the urge for that new toy, that new car, that new source of temporary pleasure.
Which brings me back to the catcher’s mitt.
Not long after I broke in the leather and had begun to refine my baseball skills to the point where I’d surely become a pro, my dreams came crashing down.
Later that summer, during a bicycle race with my brother, the chain fell off my bike as I was pedaling fast downhill in an alley that ran behind our house.
With no way to stop and a busy intersection ahead, I steered my bike into some trash bags to the left, hoping for a soft landing.
The bike landed softly, indeed. I did not. I flew off the bike and crashed head-first into a garage.
Banged up head. Broken wrist. Broken dreams.
I couldn’t play baseball that summer. Nor did I ever return to those glory days of Little League.
And that perfect gift of a catcher’s mitt? I’m sure it was tossed into a box, never to be worn again.
I still catch myself chasing after other gifts every now and then. Don’t we all? But I thank God for my wife, my family and friends and my Catholic parish for reminding me that there is really only one gift worth seeking.
Taking the field at the old Riverfront Stadium would have been awesome, for sure.
But taking the field in heaven … nothing compares to that.
