From his days as a football player to his legendary career in sports casting, Pat Summerall loved being the last guy in the bar, telling the best stories and having a grand time. But the price became too steep: his trademark smooth announcing style slipped away, his memory lapsed, and relationships with both family and friends became severely strained.
Finally, when he was 62, a circle of friends “intervened” and convinced him to go to the Betty Ford Center for treatment. The worst part of the treatment, Mr. Summerall remembers was admitting his dependency on alcohol. “I sat at meetings where you have to introduce yourself and say your problem,” he recalls. “Some people never got the courage to say it. It was tough to say, ‘I’m Pat and I’m an alcoholic.”
“After a while I became more aware of what alcohol did to me and I wanted to live a hell of lot longer.” In due time, he came to realize that the person he was before doesn’t work. What finally convinced Mr. Summerall to get help for his drinking was the letter he received from his daughter. She said, “I’d always been proud that we had the same last name, but now I can’t say that.”
Mr. Summerall’s story isn’t so unusual. Every day people who belong to AA gather to share their stories. Most introduce themselves by admitting who they are. While some realize that on their own, many do not until they are confronted by those who cared about them.
In his encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, Jesus confronts her sinfulness when she admits that she has no husband. “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.” Compelled to face up to her past choices and values, she realizes her need for God.
The Samaritans viewed themselves as being religious but they were influenced by the idolatry of their neighbors so they didn’t know the true God, much less where or how to worship him. In this encounter, Jesus reveals the truth not only to the woman but to her neighbors as well. Notice how the community of Samaritans comes to faith while the disciples missed the point that ultimately only God can quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger.
Around the world many adults, recognizing their need for God, are preparing to be baptized or come into full communion with the Church at Easter. This weekend they are going through the first of three scrutinies. The very word, scrutiny, suggests a close examination on our part to see if they are ready or worthy to join our ranks. Actually they are testing themselves. “Am I ready to become a Christian?”
In defining this rite, the Church says that “mature catechumens should have the intention of arriving at an intimate knowledge of Christ and his Church, and they are expected to progress in sincere self-knowledge, in a serious appraisal of self, and in true penance.” For those of us who have been sitting in the pews for years, we might wonder well we could measure up to them.
This being Lent we should consider a serious appraisal of self as well. I suspect many of us are afraid to look in the mirror and see ourselves as we really are. Yet to be reborn in the life of Christ begins with confronting our own lives as they are and seeing our need for such rebirth. Lent is nearly half over yet how have we dealt with those moral choices which can potentially destroy our lives?
We have to take responsibility for our sins. Until we do, we can be easily duped, blindsided, lured into thinking that our wrongdoing isn’t so wrong, after all. Just as the alcoholic may not see the danger in a single drink, we may not see the harm in a single sin. Yet that single sin when multiplied can destroy our relationships with family, friends and God. Unless we confront our sinful nature, we cannot experience a close relationship with God who yearns so much to share with us his gifts of forgiveness, reconciliation and rebirth.
We confess to God communally at the start of Mass that we have sinned, yet few of us are willing to go the extra step and personally admit our wrongdoing to another person. It isn’t easy to say to a priest, “I have sinned,” yet the sacrament of reconciliation is a vital step toward achieving peace of mind and a fuller relationship with God.
Renowned Catholic evangelist, Matthew Kelly, views this sacrament as one of the seven pillars of our faith, yet one our culture sees no need for and sadly that is how many Catholics feel as well. When we avoid this sacrament, he cautions, we risk creating God in our image, forgetting that we are created in the image of God, “the divine psychologist.” Kelly likened the sacrament to a car wash. Don’t we feel good whenever we take time to wash the grime off our cars?
Paul promises that faith brings us hope and yet how often have we given up on what our Church faith has to offer? This time will we trust God to give us sinners the fullness of new life? That move is up to us.