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Saint Ignatius High School

Redemption

In his blog “Redemption,” Jim Brennan '85 reflects on Notre Dame’s loss to Ohio State in the National Championship, illustrating how setbacks can teach resilience and provide valuable lessons in both sports and life's journey toward ultimate goals.
Redemption 


It certainly wasn’t the result I was looking for.

Monday night, my beloved Irish fell to the juggernaut that was The Ohio State University football team in the first-ever NCAA Division I football playoffs. Most of us saw the result coming—Las Vegas had the representatives of Our Lady’s University as eight-and-a-half point underdogs — but the Irish are my boys and the fact that they came within a game of winning the national championship somehow makes the sting even worse.

As does the fact that they lost to The Ohio State, a team (as my students will attest) with which I have a “love/hate” relationship. So I write not as a shill, believe me, but rather as one who saw in the resurgence of that team an analogy of the spiritual life. 

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In his "Metaphysics and Ethics" (and elsewhere) Aristotle noted that everything has a telos, an “end,” a “reason” or “purpose.” Schools exist to educate, businesses to create wealth, and sports teams, among other things, to win championships.

But while the final telos of a business is to create wealth, there are secondary teloi that one strives to meet to help achieve the final goal. For the business, secondary teloi may be a culture of innovation and a collaborative workforce. A school may seek to give its students a quality education, but it does so by helping them master reading comprehension, the art of clear writing, and delayed gratification. These are things stockholders and students may not recognize as goals or as being important, but good managers and teachers do.

And they see that achieving those teloi—those goals—may involve stumbles along the way. But that is a part of the process. Former principal Dan Bradesca '88 made it a point of his tenure to remind students and faculty alike to not be afraid of failure as we stretched ourselves academically and professionally. It is often in failure, after all, that the deepest learning occurs.

Ask an athlete what his or her ultimate goal for a season is, and he or she will undoubtedly tell you it is to win a championship. Be it a city championship for grade school CYO, a state title in high school, a national championship in college, a World Series, or a World Cup; victory at the highest level is the team’s objective.

Good coaches remind their players of a few things as they pursue that goal. First, one must put in the work and develop the skills needed to play the game at the highest level. Second, he or she needs to trust that their teammates and coaches will do their jobs because victory in team sports requires the team. Players also need to make sacrifices at times for the sake of the larger group—and they need to keep a positive attitude when they make them.

But coaches also remind their players to always keep their eyes on the goal—that in the end, if they achieve that championship, undergoing the frustrations, sacrifices, and even setbacks of their season will have been worth it.

Which brings me to the Buckeyes.

As fans are sure to recall, the team suffered a few setbacks this season: a loss to Oregon (excusable), and one to “that team up north” (less so). The team and fans—and many analysts—would agree that TOSU should have won both of those games, but it didn’t happen. There was enormous disappointment in that. But I’m convinced that being defeated by Michigan was a blessing in disguise. Having met together after the loss and clearing the air, taking responsibility, and re-focusing on their ultimate objective, the Buckeyes became a different, better team and the rest—literally—is history.

Of course, team sports are about much, much more than wins, losses, and championships, but the point is that failure need not be fatal as we work toward our goals, be they earthly or eternal.

St. Thomas was a devotee of Aristotle and agreed with the philosopher that everything had a telos but noted that the ultimate goal of human beings can’t be attained in this life. Our final goal—our final victory—is eternal life with God.

But along the way, he argued, we can have our setbacks too—sometimes horrible ones. Sin, including mortal sin, is a very real (dare I say, omnipresent?) part of our fallen natures, even among those we recognize as saints. St. Peter completely denied his best friend when Jesus most needed him. St. Paul was an accessory to the murder of St. Stephen. Dorothy Day aborted her first child. These acts, horrible and regrettable as they may have been, shaped the people who committed them. All found in their sorrow for what they had done the love and redemption of Jesus and, I would argue, a sense of compassion for and solidarity with the rest of us who similarly struggle to a greater or lesser degree. 

Obviously it would have been better for Peter to have stood by the Lord or for Day to have kept her baby, but once they sinned they couldn’t undo what they had done. They could—and did—however, repent of their sins, move forward, and use the experience of their transgressions for good.  

And as St. Dismas, the “Good Thief” at Calvary, shows us, it’s never too late to acknowledge our sinfulness and ask forgiveness. “Where sin increased,” St. Paul tells us, “grace overflowed all the more.” (Rom. 5:20)

God can write straight with our crooked lines. Calvary proves that.

Like the Buckeyes in the football universe, we here in the real world stumble—sometimes horribly—but those defeats need not have the final say. 

To their fans, Ohio State losing to Michigan may have been a “mortal sin,” but as in real life, even mortal sins can be forgiven and learned from.

And we can still win the ultimate victory.


A.M.D.G. / B.V.M.H.