Christ Our Light Catholic Church - Loudonville, NY

From Deacon Dick

For the past two weeks Joan and I have enjoyed time on Cape Cod with our family, our son, Michael, our daughter, Kathleen, her husband, Chris, and our grandchildren Andrew (18) and Caroline (14).  We love the more rural part of the Cape and so the Eastham area simply “suits our fancy,” so to speak. One of our traditions is going to an Orleans Firebirds’ baseball game.  It’s in the Cape League that one can find some of the finest collegiate baseball players in the country.  But it’s not baseball, per se, that I’d like to talk about; rather the activity among the fans.  So, here’s some Musing While Attending A Firebirds Game.  There are some uncanny parallels to the way we gather for Eucharist.  See if you can find them!

• If you are a kid, you get to play without using technology … chase foul balls … run up hills and then roll down them … convince your parents that your life will be forever ruined unless you have that hot dog … and you get to fall asleep before getting to the car. 

• You get to know your neighbor on the lawn … no one sits there with their arms folded in silence… there’s something exciting going on the field and among the fans. 

• You have this feeling of goodwill and safety. Even if you lose your cell phone or wallet, you’ll hear the broadcast to come to the broadcast booth to identify it and retrieve it.  (Yes, that actually happened!) 

• You get to sing take me out to the ballgame during the 7^th inning stretch … It doesn’t matter that you can’t carry a tune in a bucket … it’s just what we do at baseball games. 

• It’s OK to be a 100 year old fan whose “kids” want to take you home in the 8^th inning, but you refuse because you want to stay until the end. No leaving early here! 

• But most of all, that evening at the Firebirds game was a place where you could just get a hug. The kids would wander among the crowd to play, but would periodically return to their parents just to get a hug.  Just being there that evening felt like a great big hug from everyone.  That hug took different forms … a friendly word from a stranger … a random act of hospitality … an overall demeanor of courtesy and kindness.

Maybe we need to invite the leaders of the nations of the earth to a Firebird’s game!!