What is Success?
messageofhope | Reflection | Sunday August 1 2010Integrating Faith and Sports
Gospel: Lk 12:13-21
Week of 8/1/10
Brett Illig
Founder/Director
The Message of Hope Foundation
In this past week’s Gospel, Jesus challenges the meaning of success.
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.” Lk 12: 13-21
What is Success?
This particular gospel always makes me ponder the meaning of success. This usually leads me again to wrestle with God and His meaning of success. Playing sports all of my life resulted in me constantly asking myself what success really meant and looked like on and off of the field, especially the baseball field. Baseball is a sport where you must have a handle on what success looks like or you won’t last too long, as I found out the hard way. This is a sport that is set-up in failure. You fail 7 out of 10 times and you are considered a great hitter. What do we make of that, in a culture that in many ways views success in a different fashion?
I can still remember one of many conversations I have had with one of, if not the greatest hitting catchers of all-time, Mike Piazza. I can remember speaking with him at a time when I was really struggling with my hitting early on in my career and I remember walking away from the conversation thinking it cannot be that simple.
Mike at one point asked me how my day was at the plate. I was 0-3 with a walk. His first reaction was then you must be seeing the ball well because you drew a walk…which baffled me a bit…and began to take my edge off. Then he proceeded to ask me what my other three plate appearances were. I had struck out, grounded out, and lined out. Upon further questioning by Mike, he made me see that the strike out is not only a HUGE part of the game but I needed to get used to it. You are at times going to be beaten and over matched, part of the game. And oh by the way he reminded me that I was just 17 years old facing a 27 yr. old Cuban pitcher who just signed for 10 million dollars. The ground out was a ground out to the second baseman with a runner on second base and no outs. In baseball, with a runner on second and no outs, the hitter at the plate needs to get the runner to third somehow with less than 2 outs. So as a right handed hitter, hitting the ball hard to the right side is something you are looking to do. After finding out that little piece of information, Mike was congratulating me on a great at bat. He had reminded me that I did my job, giving your self up for the betterment of the team. As I began to feel a little better, he then asked about my final at bat in which I had lined out to the shortstop. In which he then said was a successful at bat as well. He told me that you did everything you could do right in what you have control over, I hit the ball hard, after it leaves your bat you can’t control any of it, including a line drive right at someone, who by the way is there to get you out and is also very good at catching the ball. After walking away from the conversation, going 0-3 with a walk, and having the greatest hitting catcher of all-time tell me it was a great and successful day at the plate, I was completely and utterly confused. I remember thinking hitting can’t be this simple in professional baseball. There needs to be more to it. Yet at the same time it felt “right” and the pressure began to lift a bit.
Looking back on that conversation that seemed to have repeated itself throughout my 8 yr career, I have come to know that the reason I was struggling to understand and except Mike’s answer to me was because I had built my identity into my success, thus making my view of what success was, not true.
If sports really teach life lessons, is this one? And to go one step further, what is “The” lesson, Christ’s lesson, offered to us? What is success? What is success on the field? What is success in the classroom? What is success in the boardroom? What is a successful marriage? What is a successful republic? What is success?
I was a sent a reflection by Fr. Joseph Pellegrino who also posed the question, what is success? I thought that his reflection is much better than I ever could articulate, so I will offer it to you now. As you read this, remember that what we teach on the athletic field is what we bring to other areas of our lives, from our relationships, roles, and professions. So as we ponder what true success is, how do we square up the success of the Savior of the world, born in a barn and to die hanging on a cross? Maybe Christ hanging on the cross turns our view of success and failure, of victory and defeat, and of power and weakness upside down. God Bless, enjoy the reflection, and have a great week.
The Successful Christian
By: Fr. Joseph Pellegrino
Today’s readings force us to confront the questions: What is a success? What is a successful life, a successful career, a successful relationship?
Is a person’s life successful if he or she is making a good salary? There’s a story about a grandmother who pulled out pictures of her three grandchildren, all under two, and showed them to a friend saying, “These are my grandchildren: That one’s the rich doctor, that one’s the rich lawyer and that one’s the chairman of the board of a large corporation.” The word success for her had to include having a high salary. But is real success predicated on salary? Certainly, that is the way that most people calculate success. But are they correct?
How about marriage? What makes a marriage successful? Is a marriage successful because a woman and a man have been together for, thirty, forty, fifty or sixty years and have avoided both divorce and homicide? Marriage anniversaries are important, but do they point to the success of a marriage or only to its longevity?
The readings for this Sunday force us to take a closer look at the whole concept of success. In the Gospel reading, the man is convinced that he is a success because he is a rich farmer. What should he do now that he has succeeded in harvesting more grain than he has storage room? Build a bigger barn, of course. The only thing is, the basis of his success is his grain. When he suddenly dies, his success remains here, and he goes on to God empty handed.
The whole mind set that success is predicated on what we own is based on a fallacy that was very clear to the author of the first reading. He is sometimes called Qoheleth, or the Preacher. This book from the Hebrew Scriptures is the very insightful and difficult book called Ecclesiastes. “Vanity of vanities,” says Qoheleth, “All is vanity.” Qoheleth’s point is that the only real values are the spiritual values. The early Christians loved this book of the Hebrew Scriptures because it helped them remain focused on the reason for their existence. That was why it was called the Church’s book, Ecclesiastes.
There is a fantastic book of meditations on St. Francis of Assisi written by James Cowan, a lay novelist, who spent some time in Assisi trying to understand Francis. You are all well aware that Francis gave up all his worldly possessions as a radical prophetic action. Cowan writes that Francis recognized that wealth, family, social position and profession confined him in a web of relationships that made it impossible to define himself as a full human being in the image of Christ. Francis lived at the time of the emergence of the middle/merchant class. Before this a person was either a peasant or a noble. The merchant class was so taken up with making money and having the finest things of life that, as Qoheleth predicted, there days were full of labors and their nights were restless. Francis’ prophetic action of stripping off his rich clothes in the square in Assisi was a sign that the inner person had to be exposed rather than cloaked in silk and velvet. Francis’ action was prophetic, a radical action to help us recognize the entanglements of what the world calls success.
A doctor is successful not if he or she has a prosperous practice but if he or she becomes the healing hands of Christ for the sick. A lawyer is successful not if he or she is part of a profitable firm, but if he or she uses learning, knowledge and talent to protect people and the community, to do good for people and the community, to be just.
Many times an incorrect view of success is based on honors and titles. Is a priest a success if he becomes a Monsignor or a Bishop? Monsignor Guido Sarducci from the old Saturday Night Live boasted that it was really important for him to become a Monsignor because he could get a better cut of veal in Rome. No, success is not measured by titles. A priest is on the road to success if he can draw closer to God each day of his life while he also draws those he serves to join him on the journey to God.
How can we determine if a marriage is successful? Certainly, longevity does not determine the success of a marriage. A marriage is successful if the man or woman is a better person, a more loving person, because of the marriage. How about parenting? What are the signs that people are good parents? Success in parenting is certainly not based on what your kids have, but who your kids are. For example, many of you parents have begun shopping for school clothes. Perhaps, some of you are shopping at Ross, Walmart or Target. Perhaps some of you are shopping at most exclusive stores in Tampa Bay. The cost of the clothes that you put on your children has nothing to do with the success of your parenting. The success of your parenting is evidenced in the decisions your children make throughout their lives.
What I’m saying is that the general concept of success is a fallacy. Success is not predicated on what we have, what honors we receive, what jobs we hold, etc. Success is predicated on how each of us has developed as a person.
Let me take this one step, one infinite step, farther. Success is predicated on our ability to assume the person of Jesus Christ. St. Paul says in the second reading that our lives are hidden with Christ in God in such a way that when Christ appears we appear. The personality of a Christian is so entwined with the person of Jesus Christ that Christ and the Christian, Christ in the Christian, must be one. That is success.
All this is a completely different way of considering success. For the Christian, success is not a present reality, it is a goal, the goal of Christian life. This goal will be reached when every aspect of our lives reflect the Person of Jesus Christ.
That is success.
All else is vanity.
