In the Zone
messageofhope | Reflection | Sunday March 7 2010Integrating Faith and Sports
Gospel: Lk 13: 1-9
Week of 3/7/10
In this past week’s Gospel, we are asked to repent.
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’” Lk 13: 1-9
Being in “The Zone”
Being in “the zone” is something you often hear sports players or coaches refer to as a place that is where they want to be. This place is a place where the baseball looks like a beach ball to hitters, and the basket looks five times the size on the basketball court. It is a place where you hear no sounds or outside distractions, and every move is the right one. It is a place where physically you are leaving nothing behind and living up to the talents you are given. It is almost a Zen state, or in our faith tradition, similar to a place of solitude where you feel unconscious to the outside world. I am sure if you were to ask all of the sports greats, they talk about this “state,” this “zone” as the place they loved to be.
As a player I loved this place. In my spiritual life, on one hand, it is a place that I have come to love, need, and want as well. I have grown to love contemplation and contemplative prayer. As St. Teresa says, ““Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.” Contemplative prayer seeks Him “whom my soul loves.”” The Catechism refers to contemplative prayer as when, “We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves, so as to hand ourselves over to Him as an offering to be purified and transformed.” I have come to love my times throughout the day where I find myself in solitude and contemplation, no words, no actions, no thoughts, just in “the zone.”
Yet on the other hand, “the zone,” in my spiritual life makes me nervous, scared, and defensive at times. It is in this place that I feel threatened and challenged by truth. I have no where to hide, no where to run, I become face to face with Christ, and at times I hear the word “repent.” This usually leads me to leave “the zone” out of fear, and enter back into the busyness of my life. I find myself when confronted with truth; the easiest thing to do is to get busy. To do more, take on more, so I don’t have to deal with the truth. Yet repenting is exactly what Christ is asking us to do in this Gospel. He is asking us to “re-think” our lives, and to walk away from the things that are not fruitful in His garden. For me, especially during this Lenten time, this means I must slow down, and enter into “the zone” again. As the busyness of my life is called into question, I must understand that this creates the “violence” in my life, because without repenting, I am not the man He created me to be, and I am not bearing the fruit He wants me to produce.
“The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence.” Thomas Merton
So as we enter into the last few weeks before the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord, let us enter in “the zone” with Christ and repent. Let us be comforted in knowing that it is He who loves us, and wants us to bear much fruit, on and off the athletic fields. And it is He who wants to know us and be with us every minute of every day, holding us in the palm of His hand, through the deserts and the mountain top experiences.
“Christianity is not merely a religious system which attempts to explain evil; it is a life of dynamic love which forgives evil and, by forgiving, enables love to transform evil into good.” Thomas Merton
