It is over for the Patriots

I am sad because the football season for the New England Patriots is over. They won over the hearts of many this year because it was a very young team that kept improving throughout the year. While the Jets played modestly well, the Patriots didn't execute according to plan. Anyways, while it is just a game, the game encompasses much more of human life.

And at the same time, it is just a game. I watch the men and women on the 30-day retreat and I listen to some of their stories and the game pales nothing in comparison to what they are going through. Thank God I believe in Jesus Christ and place my hope within him. He is who and what matters.

Yesterday we had a day of repose and I visited some new friends and gave them a brief day of prayer. I could tell they enjoyed it and hunger for Ignatian Spirituality. I find the old Scriptural quote to be true: the harvest is great and the laborers are few. Ask the Father to send more laborers into the vineyard.

I will watch the opening night of the final season of Big Love. I find it to be a fascinating show because it really challenges our cultural assumptions. It is about a minority culture that moves closer into mainstream culture with many vulnerabilities and demands. It is set in the context of an offshoot group to the Mormon religion that adheres to a guiding principle much different from my own. The characters embrace polygamy as a way of fulfilling the will of the Heavenly Father. The show emphasizes how we live in relationship with one another and it shows our human power and foibles.

While the polygamous relationship is the immediate context, the over-arching context is how the dominant majority struggles with a reality they do not embrace. The minority group holds things in silence and is basically in the closet about their relationship even though the relationship is a place where they find God present to them. The juxtaposition of these two groups present challenges for each side and they are forever changed by the human interaction and response. I find it compelling.

Tomorrow we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day who began the push for civil rights for African-Americans. It is everyone's holiday because our country continues to move towards greater civil rights to those minority groups that are pushed down and bullied by the larger dominant majority. Together we change our society to become one in which the arc of justice takes care of those who are disenfranchised or powerless. We have lots of work to do and we have to learn ways of combating the bullying structures that are imbedded deep within our social systems. In all of this, we need God to save us from ourselves.

Tomorrow will be a cold day with warmer days coming on Tuesday and later in the week. We could use some good snowmelt.

Anyways, it seems like each day, daylight stays at least a minute longer. The days seem bright. Light has won out over the darkness. Alleluia.