Big Hits, Sacrifice, and Spiritual Focus

Big hits wrote the story of Sunday’s N.F.L. playoff game between The Dallas Cowboys and The Minnesota Vikings.  Those who watched saw the Vikings’ defensive lineman take over the game by blowing through the offensive line to get to Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo.  He was sacked six times by players twice his size.  There was never a chance to find his receivers because he was harassed and knocked down continuously throughout the game.  Perhaps some of us sympathized with the pain.  We imagined how it must have felt, based on our own experience, to receive the barrage of hits.  It hurt, but Romo kept coming back for more.  He continued to stand in the line of fire because he believed it was worth the pain.

When football fans, players, and coaches give honor and praise to a player for sacrificing his body in the process of giving and receiving the big hit, it is the spirit of sacrifice they are celebrating, it is the spirit of the Lord.  His cross was a hit he gave and received at the same time, the biggest hit of all.  It was worth his life.  And in surrendering it to the Father’s will, Jesus delivered ours from death.

Of course there are two sides to every big hit.  It is a shared experience.  There is a player who delivers the explosive blow and a player who receives it.  Both require mental preparation.  Both require a certain toughness and strength.  This same mental preparation and strength is the fruit of our Christian prayer.  Through prayer we learn to receive well the big hit given to us by the Lord.

Most athletes, not just those who play football, envision themselves converting a particular goal into reality before competition begins.  It is an imagined experience that takes place entirely within the mind.  As Christians we do this when we contemplate the life of Christ and the saints.  We envision it based on our own experience.  We make a decision to follow their example, to receive the life Jesus has given us in death, and we ask God to give us the strength to do so through grace.

A technique used by some of the hardest hitters in the N.F.L. is described by Hall-of-Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott in "The sound and the fury — violent hitting in pro-football".  By first locating a spot a short distance behind the ball-carrier he would be hitting, Ronnie said he would then run through the player to that spot.

"It allows you to create more velocity as you are going through the target at the point of impact," said Lott to The Sporting News. "Sometimes, you see a great hit when it isn’t a really big guy, but it’s still a great hit because he allows himself to go through the target at that moment…Some people say they’re great hitters and they’re fearless.  And yet, right at that point of impact, how fearless are they?  The truly great hitters are able to overcome that moment, that instant, and know that they can keep their eyes open and go for it."

The point of impact in our Christian lives is the moment we are called to sacrifice.  It’s where the rubber meets the road.  It is the selfless favor we do for a neighbor or a colleague at work, the interest we express in their lives.  It is the T.V. remote we are putting down to read with our children, the anticipatory chore we do out of affection for our wife.  And we succeed at these moments by looking through the target and focusing instead on the supernatural reality beyond it.  In this way we approach the Christian life fearlessly.  We make the big hits.  We blow straight through the opponent, which is ourselves, and meet the desired end, God himself, living in and through us at the point of impact.

In a similar way Christ prepared himself for sacrifice by his Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.  In conversation with the Father he underwent a mental experience of the cross.  St. Luke tells us he was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground (22:44). He made the decision in Gethsemane to accept whatever suffering he would endure for the salvation of mankind because it was the Father’s will.  And he blew straight through the target, because he remained focused on that goal at the point of impact.

Mental prayer is a workout, a conditioning of our soul for the real thing.  Just as a football player uses his helmet and shoulder pads to make the big hit, as Catholics we use the armor of God (Eph 6:11) put on through prayer and participation in the sacraments.  The goal of the Christian life is to share in the big hit of Christ and experience the wound of his love.  We pray often so when the henchman comes looking for Jesus the Nazorean, as he did in Gethsemane, we in turn can one-day answer with him in complete serenity, I AM (Jn 18:5).