LIFE MATTERS: Is The World Cup Loss Worthy of Your Anguish and Regret?

By Dr. Dencio S. Acop

As I began to listen to the homily of the Priest from last Sunday’s Mass at the St. Francis Chapel in Boston, I knew it would be an interesting one when he greeted everyone by recalling the just concluded FIFA World Cup where Argentina lost to Spain! And the question he asked captured my interest and hopefully everyone else’s inside that chapel. The good Father asked why people were in such visible pain, anguish, and regret at the end of the game? Well, of course it is understandable that fans of Argentina were disappointed and upset at the unexpected outcome as far as they were concerned. Everyone had expected the great Lionel Messi to cap his legendary career by winning the World Cup again! I’m not so much a fan of Football as I am of basketball, and so I can also add in the recent NBA Finals won by the New York Knicks over the San Antonio Spurs. The reactions of disappointed Texas fans were the same as those of the Argentinians. The Spurs were so dominant in the NBA Regular Season and Western Conference Playoffs defeating the number 1 and previous champion OKC Thunder. They also dominated the Knicks leading in double digits through all five games in the Finals. Their losses, therefore, always coming in the fourth quarter, were bitter pills to swallow for their fans. The Mass Presider was relating people’s reactions from the World Cup to the Sunday Gospel from St. Matthew 13: 44-52. This Gospel narrates what Jesus said to his disciples in a Parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field”. While this initial part of the scripture captures the joy of victors, the succeeding part tries to warn against the anguish of losers by revealing what deserves true pain and regret. Jesus does this by continuing his narrative that: “The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad, they throw away. Thus, it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous, and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

Some of us may think it a cliché that they get reminded about heaven and hell, either a lot or if at all. I’ll discuss the latter in this paragraph. Without articulating or digressing too much, in the interest of time and people’s patience, suffice it to say that around half (or probably even more) of the 8.3 billion people in the world today do not give a damn about where their souls are going when they die. Several reasons could explain this. First, people are too busy to care or even think about where their souls go after death or if they even think they do have souls. Second, people are too distracted by the world that they do not give serious thought about serious matters like their soul. Third, people only think just in time about the soul and the afterlife, that is, when bodily life has all but gone and left them. Fourth, people may have their religion, but it is not tied to how they live. Thus, life is still lived amorally; or morally only sometimes; or worse, immorally and yet think they are still moral. Fifth, people allow themselves to be enslaved by some form of worldly idolatry – pleasure, power, materialism, honor. Sixth, people just let go and not care anymore, absorbed by the world losing their humanity. Etc. What the good Father reminds is this: Why are we having so much pain, regret, and anguish over mundane and temporal issues such as the World Cup or NBA Finals? Yes, I get it! It is the WORLD CUP or NBA FINALS! But it is ONLY the world cup and nba finals! Is the experience truly worth the pain and regret? Try ETERNAL LIFE! This is the point of the Presider, echoing the point of Jesus. Not to gain eternal life at the end of our lives is the true pain, regret, and anguish! What are we doing in this life to gain life in heaven with God and his angels? This afterlife in heaven, if we deserve it, is eternal. If we can only conceptualize what is eternal, it should give us a fair warning about the temporariness of all our expressed anguish over the shallow and mundane that we spend so much time in while in this world. Wouldn’t we in our souls regret the wrongs we have done as we leave our bodies behind when our time comes? It is at the time of death that our souls suddenly realize if we deserve eternal life in heaven or not as our earthly lives are revealed right before our eyes in a whiplash. We ourselves would know what we have done to deserve eternal life or not. 

I used to read the daily column “At 3AM” of Jesuit Father James Reuter in The Philippine Star until he retired from active daily media duties in 2009. I never could forget what he shared with us his readers when he recalled why he joined the priesthood. While discerning his contemplated vocation, Fr. Reuter remembered how he was standing in New Jersey, where he was born and grew up, and saw the New York City skyline across the Hudson. The thought occurred to him that in about 1,000 years, that magnificent city with all its grand buildings and other structures could be crumbled and laden underneath, and compare that temporariness of things on the earth with the eternity of heaven. That profound realization tilted the balance for the priest hood. Fr. Jim was only 24 years old when World War II broke out in Manila where he was a missionary, teaching and continuing his studies. He and other Americans were arrested by the Japanese and sent to concentration camps which included the old campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. After the war, he and 26 other Jesuits imprisoned in the Philippines were ordained as priests. He ended up spending over seven decades as a priest educator, playwright, and media pioneer in the Philippines, later becoming an honorary Filipino citizen. He taught at the Ateneo and spearheaded the publication of The Communicator, and Signs of the Times, a key church periodical during the martial law era under the Marcos dictatorship. I think his was an example of a life deserving of eternity, and one we could all appreciate and emulate as well not necessarily as ordained priests, but as “priests” from our baptism. Fr. Jim also once wrote that “a man was noblest not while riding on horseback, but when kneeling before his God”. That one I never forgot. 

I would not pretend to know everything it takes to attain eternal life in heaven. I believe it takes our entire lifetime to learn about the kingdom of heaven and decide, or choose, to aspire for it or not. Depending upon how we respond to the workings of the spirit through our daily living, our lives either shape up or down. Only God knows men’s hearts which contain the innermost aspirations and love borne for Him and others. Our love for God is proven by our very lives while here on earth. Finding the kingdom of heaven and prioritizing it through our lives have been the desire willed by God our Creator but given as free will for us to use as desired by Him, or not. Love is mutual and relational and often unseen but felt. It is not selfish. If it were so, the Father would have had no need to send his son who showed his love for the Father by obeying his will accomplished through loving humanity, redeeming it for Him. C.S. Lewis does a fantastic job in describing, philosophically and figuratively, how God operationalized his plan towards gifting his creatures with eternal life in heaven through the world. He describes how everything we find in this earthly life is a gift from God. He goes on to explain how imitating Christ gains for us eternal life in heaven eventually. As Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, and many other saints modeled with their lives, imitating Christ does not have to lie in greatness but in simplicity. She said that we do not need to do great things, but only little things done with great love. But Pope Benedict XVI also warned that being conformed to God, in spirit more than in letter, is the true way of obedience to the Father. I think we know what is good and evil in this life. We only need to nurture the goodness we find in ourselves the best we can through our earthly sojourn, always humbly seeking the mercy of God, always thankful for his kindness to us, and always praising him in right worship. We ought to surrender ourselves to him and allow him to guide us always. We do the best we can and let him do the rest.