The cab arrived within two minutes. Knowing the length of time I usually waited for a ride, I considered myself blessed. Even so, the driver apologized, saying that the live radio broadcast of the NBA finals had slowed down his driving. In response, I asked him to turn up the volume of the car radio so I could catch the game’s last minutes.
Behind by a few shots, the Golden State Warriors surged ahead with faultless field goals, and, with only a few seconds left, the Cleveland Cavaliers saw their hopes for a win fading fast.
When the dust settled, we continued to discuss the game, its heroes and villains, its what-might-have-beens. We analyzed it like experts.
At last I arrived at my destination. After paying the fare and before getting off, I asked the driver what his team was and discovered that it was mine too.
I had not met him before, and might not see him again. I had no way of knowing whether he was a good or a bad man. But at that moment, while I was riding in his cab, I found common ground with the driver, first, in that we both listened with excitement to the broadcast of the basketball game, and, second, in that we rooted for the same team.
Had I hated basketball, or disliked the driver’s face or manners, I could have asked him to turn the radio off or to shift it to a music channel. But I did not do it because the spirit of the game had captured me, as well as that spirit, which, according to St. Benedict, urges one to receive others as Christ.
In a way, an incident in the life of Christ parallels the situation, although in a somewhat negative manner. In his Gospel, Mark writes that, when the scribes from Jerusalem accused him of driving out demons with the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, Jesus answered, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”
Of course, basketball has nothing demonic in it, although people have pointed to its connection to hip hop culture whose nether end is associated with street gangs. In fact, basketball can teach me many things. It has its rules, which are unchanging throughout the game, unlike the secular world in which the individual makes his own rules and changes them at will. And the game values that which alone can ensure a win — discipline, a bad word to pleasure seekers.
No wonder St. Paul alluded to sports in recounting how he lived the Christian life — “forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.”
And in Christ, the winner takes it all.
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