The World Series between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays was an incredible display of baseball. There were incredible defensive plays and timely hitting from both teams that drove the series to an exciting game seven. For this final game, my wife and I allowed my eight year old son, who is a Shohei Ohtani fan, to watch the first half of the game with us. While he did not get to watch the most exciting portion of the game (the whole family watched the full game highlights the next day), he was enthralled by the action and the spectacle of the game, paying close attention to pitches, baserunning situations, and defensive decisions made by each team.
As we were nearing his bedtime, he turned to me and my wife and asked the question, “How do you play in the World Series?” My wife and I exchanged glances, and we explained to him that while right now everyone gets to play in his coach pitch league, when he gets older, playing time has to be earned. In fact, I told him, to even be on a team in high school and beyond, you will have to prove you are good enough to be there. I looked at him very seriously and told him it takes a lot of hard work, and even then he might not make it, but I would help him get there in any way I could for as long as he wanted to try. He told me, just as seriously, that he wanted to do it. And then I said, “Okay, but I am also going to do everything that I can to help you become a saint as well.” He nodded and went back to watching the game.
As I sat planning how I was going to execute helping my son become an MLB player and a saint at the same time, it occurred to me how different the process between the two are. While both take incredible hard work and perseverance, the beginning premise of both could not be more different.
As I told my son, in baseball (as in most human institutions that are meant to make money) you have to prove your worth to those who are in power. You have to train endless hours to prove to scouts, coaches, and upper management that you are worth the risk of a draft pick or contract. And even if you make it to the minor leagues, you have to constantly compete against thousands of other players for a chance to make it to the highest level. And even if you make it to the highest level, you have to continually perform at the highest level unless someone else, who is in the situation you were previously, comes and takes your spot. It’s a dog-eat-dog structure, and while brotherhood and virtue can be found within the process, it is nearly the exact opposite of what it means to become a saint.
Instead of having to prove ourselves to God, sainthood begins with the premise that we are chosen, without having to prove ourselves to God. He loves us for who we are, and invites us into His life without any need for prerequisite skills or talents. All we need to have is faith that He loves us and can do great things in and through us for the door of grace to be opened wide.
Now, this is where the hard work comes in. Once we accept His love and acceptance of us, we have to continually submit ourselves to His will so that He can give us a life that we did not know was possible. But sometimes this is harder than hundreds of swings off a tee on a daily basis. Yet, throughout all the failures in this process (and many will come) never once is there a threat of losing our spot as His beloved child. The only way that we lose His grace is if we choose to walk away from it ourselves.
It is also in the process of Sainthood that we find true communion. Because there is a place for everyone in heaven if they accept it, there is no internal competition to reach the top. In fact, the road is so narrow and difficult that it is necessary we make the walk of sainthood together, and it is in the process of sacrificing to help others make it to the highest level of sainthood, that we reach the highest level ourselves.
So as all of us navigate the tension between the practices of sainthood, and living in a competitive world created by man, let us remember that excellence is not achieved by climbing to the top of human institutions at the detriment of others. Rather, human excellence is achieved through being the person that God created us to be. And while that may mean being as good of a baseball player as Shohei Ohtani, or a humble hourly wage worker, we are to first accept the fact that we are a child of God. Because whenever we accept the fact that we are chosen and loved by God and conform to His will (because that is what’s best for us), we do not rise to the top of human institutions, but to the top of heavenly ones which is a greater joy that we could ever imagine.
