Third Sunday In Ordinary Time - January 22, 2017

During last Sunday’s playoff game in Kansas City, announcer Cris Collinsworth made an interesting observation about Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell. Collinsworth told of how many scouts and coaches tried to discourage Bell’s running style, in which he hesitates before deciding which hole to attack. Bell was so used to those comments that he was surprised when Steelers coach Mike Tomlin Bell said that he liked Bell’s approach. The rest, as they say, is history. Earlier this season, Bell broke the Steelers’ team record for most rushing yards in a game. Two weeks ago he set the team record for most yards rushing in a playoff game, a record he broke again last week.

With that opening, I could take this column in two directions. I could talk about football since everyone around here wants the Steelers to beat New England this weekend and move on to yet another Super Bowl. I am more of a baseball fan, but this is a football town. Each year, at the beginning of the season, I try to ignore football. The game has gotten so violent, and the NFL has such a poor record on players’ health, that I begin to wonder if I can watch football in good conscience. It’s easy for me to refrain while baseball is still going on, but some time after the World Series I get caught up in the excitement. Right now, I want to the Steelers to beat the Patriots as much as anyone. So sing along with me: “We’re from the town with the great football team. We cheer the Pittsburgh Steelers. Winning’s a habit, not only a dream. Go out and get them, Steelers.”

But I also want to build on the comment that only Mike Tomlin saw the true value of Le’Veon Bell as a running back. It is all too easy to get caught in the trap of overlooking someone’s value. Consider that January 22 is the anniversary of the Supreme Court rulings in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the cases that made abortion legal in this country. In those cases, the court essentially said that human beings do not have any value before birth. Since then the Catholic Church has been at the forefront of the Right to Life movement. Without making light of the problems of women facing unplanned pregnancy, we want to show that even these small, helpless children have the intrinsic value of a human being beloved by God. Let us pray that our society will come to recognize that human life is a gift from God to be treasured, even while we have to deal with the issues that arise in difficult situations.

I think we can say that the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs have begun to appreciate the value that Le’Veon Bell has as a running back. May we someday be able to say that our culture appreciates the value that all human beings, from the moment of conception, have by being created in the image and likeness of God.

                                                                                             Father H