MY GREAT EPIPHANY

Growing up I was a huge Pittsburgh Pirate fan, fanatic, really. Still am. If the Pirates are playing on the west coast late at night Pittsburgh time and I have to make one of the trips we older people have to make in the middle of the night, when I return to bed, I have to check ESPN on my phone to see what the boys did. I can’t help it. If the won, I am delighted. If they lost, I now take it in stride with a shrug. Not much I can do about it.

My shoulder shrug is the result of a great epiphany in my life. Before that time I would almost take it personally if the Pirates lost. Silly, I know. But what can I say? It was what it was. That epiphany moment came around 3:00 in the afternoon of Sunday, October, 17, 1971. I was sitting alone in the rectory watching the final game of the World Series between Pittsburgh and the Baltimore Orioles. It was the bottom of the night, Steve Blass was pitching and the Pirates were leading 2-1.

All of a sudden, for whatever reason, the thought struck me: “Bill, the Pirates are going to win or the Pirates are going to lose; but you still have to get up tomorrow and say 7:00 Mass.” My life was not going to change because the Pirates won or the Pirates lost. But, of course, my life did change. I finally put baseball and my love for the Pirates in perspective. Prior to that it was sort of out of kilter.

Now I grant that my Pirate Epiphany was no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Baseball, after all, is only a game and a passing fancy. There are millions of people who could care less what the Pirates or any baseball team does just as I could care less about soccer over which billions of people go crazy. But many of them will someday or already have had the same epiphany about their favorite soccer team as I did about the Pirates.

It is easy to lose perspective. We wrap our heads and whole bodies around some, in the long run, unimportant thing – athletic team, political issue, television show, whatever – and our life gets skewed. The more important parts of our lives get a little messed up because of it. It affects our jobs, our relationships and even our health at times. And unless and until we get a handle on whatever it is that causes us to loose perspective, our life remains out of balance.

Sad to say, that is even true about our religion. There are those who get so wound up in having to save the world for Jesus or Allah or Yahweh that the rest of their life and their relationships take a very back seat. It is easy to fall victim to someone or something that wants to take control of our lives – religion, drugs, alcohol, work, etc. – and eventually does, so much so that we do not know how to regain control.

I am thankful I had that epiphany way back then even if it was over a really trivial matter. But over the years it has reminded me to stop and reflect on a regular basis if there is something that wants to or is already trying to take over my life. What about you?