Recently I found a video on YouTube entitled, “Best Play in College Football History.” With that title, you would think it would be a video clip of some wide receiver making a seemingly impossible catch, or maybe a running back slipping an impossible number of tackles to get to the endzone, or maybe an offense pulling off a crazy and creative play to win a game. But it was none of those things. This clip was of a single player doing something incredible to change the course of a game. That player was Maurice Clarett and the game was the 2002 National Championship versus the Miami Hurricanes.
The clip starts out with Craig Krenzel, the Ohio State quarterback, making a very costly mistake by throwing an interception to Miami cornerback Sean Taylor in the endzone. A possible touchdown negated by a great defensive play by the Hurricanes. But that is not the end of the play. As Sean Taylor runs the interception out of the endzone, you see number 13, Maurice Clarett, run him down and strip the ball away from him as they fall to the ground. A defensive player making that type of play would have been impressive, but this was done by an offensive player with little to no experience stripping a football out of somebody’s grasp. In fact, he had probably spent many hours practicing how to hold onto the football so as not to let a strip happen.
It is a legitimately incredible thing to watch. I remember watching this play live at my Aunt Sue’s house and going from devastation to elation within a very few seconds. What made it so impressive was Maurice Clarett’s ability to snap into that defensive mindset almost instantaneously and then go make a huge play which allowed the Buckeyes to retain possession of the football in a close game.
To me, this is an example of a player with the uncommon talent of being laser focused on his goal. This showed itself in so many ways with Maurice Clarett. He was a great runner because he was able to pick out the holes to run through, then hit those holes while adjusting based on the defenders coming at him unexpectedly. When in the open field, Maurice was able to set his sights on the endzone, making defenders miss so that he could get there. The guy was just on another level. So on that fateful night of the national championship, Maurice knew he needed to get that ball back for the Buckeyes, and even though he was an offensive player, he did everything he could to make the defensive play desperately needed in that moment. I think this laser focus in the individual plays of the game–being able to know what was required in the moment and doing it–was part of his drive for victory, that unshakeable focus on the ultimate goal of winning the game. On the field of competition, Maurice Clarett was an athlete with focus on his goals.
This brings us to the preaching we hear from Jesus today as He teaches us using the sayings we now call the beatitudes. The name beatitudes comes from the Latin, beatus, which means ‘blessed.’ Each of Jesus’ descriptions shows us how to avoid the shallow, passing happiness of worldly things in order to achieve true, deep blessedness in our lives. These short, challenging, and powerful statements flip worldly wisdom on its head and call us to a life focused on the Kingdom of God.
I want to focus on two of the eight beatitudes today: ‘blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness’ and “blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you.” Let’s look at hungering and thirsting for righteousness first. Jesus tells us, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” He is pointing us to the deeper needs of our life, beyond our more obvious physical hungers and thirsts. From the Cross, our Lord called out from the depth of His spirit, “I thirst.” Mother Teresa had these two power-packed words written beside the Crucifix in the chapel of every convent she opened. Every day, she pondered what it meant to satisfy the thirst of Jesus on the Cross. In these words, Mother Teresa heard the longing of Jesus for us to respond to His love. In a beautiful reflection on the words, ‘I Thirst,’ Mother Teresa imagined Jesus saying these words to each of us:
I THIRST FOR YOU. Yes, that is the only way to even begin to describe My love for you. I THIRST FOR YOU. I thirst to love you and to be loved by you. So precious are you to Me that I THIRST FOR YOU. Come to Me, and I will fill your heart and heal your wounds. I will make you a new creation and give you peace even in your trials. I THIRST FOR YOU.
This hungering and thirsting for righteousness calls us to thirst for that true love which makes us right in our relationships with God and others. Too often it is easy in our weakness to fall into the trap of using others for our selfish gain, but the person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness realizes that ultimately, others are not means to ends, but ends in themselves, worthy of immense love. How do we gain this blessedness? How do we even begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness? I would encourage us all to realize that right now, Jesus is with us and in us. He is the one who both shows us how to hunger and thirst for righteousness, from the Cross, and who can teach our hearts how to hunger and thirst like Him. But this can only happen when, with His grace, we focus on Jesus within us and within those around us. Each relationship in our lives is an opportunity to be blessed by hungering and thirsting for righteousness with Jesus.
In the final Beatitude, Jesus tells us: “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.” Here, Jesus challenges us not to be too concerned about others’ reactions as we strive to live in Him. When we seek to be identified with Jesus, to allow Him to live through us in our Christian lives, we are going to experience insults, persecution and people speaking badly of us, just as Jesus did. But the Lord reminds us that when we are focused on the goal of eternal life with Him and all the angels and saints in Heaven, none of that exterior noise and hate can penetrate us too deeply. If our focus is on Jesus and the life He is calling us to both now and in eternity, we can be deeply blessed even when others try to hurt us, because we know that this life is a journey home, and our focus is on that true Home and the One walking with us and working in us to get us there.
With these two beatitudes, and all the rest as well, what we are called to is that same type of laser focus that Maurice Clarett and other high performing athletes show, the focus on the ultimate goal that helps you know what to pursue in the present moment. Because of his dogged focus, Maurice Clarett played a big part in helping his team get to the pinnacle of College Football that year. If we are honest with ourselves, could we claim that same type of focus on Jesus in our own life? He is the One who is both our Goal in Heaven and the One who works in and through us to get us to that goal!
Wherever we are in our focus on the Lord, let us all remember that each Mass is an opportunity to refocus our hearts on the One who will bring us home. The Beatitudes invite us to focus on Jesus’ presence in our lives and in our hearts, so that through Him we might live a full life now and journey to the fullness of life in Heaven. When I hold up the Host which has become Jesus Himself, I chant the words: “Through Him and with Him and in Him, O God almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, forever and ever, amen.” We don’t achieve the beatitudes, the blessed life, just by our own effort, but by focusing our hearts on the One who is with us and in us, the One through Whom we are made strong. So, as I pray those words at Mass today, let’s all, in the depths of our hearts, pray that our hearts and lives will be refocused on Him.
+ Thank you, Father, for showing us how to be blessed through, with and in your Son. Jesus, help us to allow your teaching about the blessed life to keep us focused on you in every situation in our lives. Holy Spirit, help us to loosen our heart’s grip on things that distract our focus from Jesus. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +