Football’s not coming home … yet

Football’s not coming home … yet

St Ignatius and the World Cup
Homily at Cardinal Griffin Catholic College Friday 13th July 2018

I was disappointed on Wednesday evening. I woke up on Thursday feeling even worse. The extraordinary dream of England winning the world cup had passed, and Croatia had bundled us out in the semi final. Despite all the anticipation, all the excitement, football isn’t coming home after all.
I’m old enough to remember our win in 1966, and also old enough to remember too many disappointments like this, many years of hurt. When you have spent much of your life supporting the England men’s football team, it has often been like this.

But yet, at the same time, despite the pain, let’s not forget this team’s achievements. The youngest squad in the competition, with few players of world class fame, were not expected to escape the group stage, still less succeed in a penalty shoot out. Expectations were low. Very low.
Yet they did exceed them. They even got to that semi-final. And in that game, for 45 minutes, they were the best team in the world, within a whisker of the prize. Players you had hardly heard of excelled - such as Pickford, Trippier, Maguire. And Kane got the golden boot.
They may not have won the trophy, but this young team, many of them little older than many of the students at this college, performed wonderfully.

Now of course, you know all this, and you’ve heard it from the pundits, read it online, heard it on the radio and the TV, and discussed it with friends. What on earth has this got to do with this mass? and St Ignatius?

(Oh No, perhaps you are thinking to yourselves, this is the bit when he brings in Jesus. Well yes … and no. )

Ask yourself how this young England team achieved so much that was beyond what was expected of them.

Two things.

Firstly, they played as a team.
I saw a poster before the world cup began, advertising tv coverage. It had pictures of the stars on it: Ronaldo, Messi, Suarez, Salah, Neymar. All of these brilliant players - but none of them got very far in the competition. What won through was not just exceptional skill, but Team Work. Unselfishness. It is unselfishness, not celebrity which succeeds - players playing not for themselves, but for others. Most of England’s goals were scored from set pieces, dead ball situations, including corners and free-kicks. In the whole tournament about a third of all goals were from set pieces, and England created 22 goal-scoring chances from set pieces - twice as many as any other team. And how do you do that? Through hard work on the training ground, hours of practice, rehearsing play after play, move after move, working together, working for one another.
And this team was also diverse. More than half the England team were from families which had come into Britain as migrants, enriching and diversing our national resources.
And the team is not just the men in the team, not just the squad, not just the manager, not even the waist coat, but others too: physiotherapists, doctors, fitness coaches, sports psychologists, fans and families, women and men, working together - team work, unselfishness, cooperation.
You’ve heard of this before, because here in this College, inspired the teaching of Ignatius … we have phrase for it: we call it being Men and Women for others.

And secondly, by being a team, they exceeded what anyone could possibly have anticipated. They progressed through the knock-out stages, playing untiringly, with commitment and loyalty. More than anyone thought or could have imagined or perhaps even dreamed. They did more than expected. They gave something extra. The Team became bigger and better and more than the players.
Bigger. More. Extra. Exceeding expectations.
You’ve heard of this before too, because in this College, inspired the teaching of Saint Ignatius … we have word for it: we call it Magis.

I am sure you have heard these words many times, Magis, and Being Men and Women for Others and perhaps you’ve wondered what they mean or what they have to do with you.

Yet what Ignatius was saying, what his ideas are telling us is this: this is the way really to be fulfilled as a human being, truly to be happy. Human potential is not found in our own success or glory, but in the good of others, not just in doing what we have to do (like ticking a checklist), but in giving more, in being more.

It is true in football, and other sports too - we have seen this very clearly in these past few weeks. But it is also true in your studies, in the choices you may in life, whatever work you may do now or in the future, in the way you care for your friends and your families. We become men and women for others by exceeding even our own expectations.

And you don’t have to be religious at all to see that this is true,
but if you do have a faith, it will make perfect sense
as the work of the love of God for all his people.