Super Bowl

In the 1981 Academy Award winning film Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell refuses to violate the Lord's commandment to keep the Lord's Day holy, and refuses to run on Sunday in the 1924 Olympics. In 1958 Brigham Young's baseball team turned down an invitation to the College World Series because they refused to play baseball on Sunday. Recently, two all-American football players turned down $25 million NFL contracts to take $25,000 a year teaching jobs because they refused to play on Sunday. These men are honored not only in this life but will be truly honored by our Lord for all eternity. "He that honors me, I will honor."

Until 1983, stores in Louisiana could not be open on Sunday. And, interestingly enough, Joseph Stalin ordered his generals to move the Russian sporting games to Sunday, relying on taking the youth and then taking the country. This Sunday, nearly 100,000 people will cram into the Super Bowl in Miami, Florida, with the rest of the country riveted to the game by TV or computer. Nearly a billion dollars will be spent on tickets, TV ads, hotels, etc. How is this giving glory to God? His commandment is "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.... Thou shalt do no work...."

I startled a fellow parishioner of mine by telling him that next week the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be offered at the SuperDome. We would be stuck in traffic for hours, and when we got there we would have to pay $1,000 to get in. When the Mass is finished, it will take us several hours to get back home. But, nothing to fret about, because we love our Lord so much that just the excitement of being there is worth all the sacrifice. He got the point. Where your heart is, there your treasure is. You cannot worship God and Super Bowl!

Rich Mahoney