Liturgy and Hockey

by Brandon Jubar

"I can't stand hockey."

That was my mantra for years. It was just a bunch of guys skating around, beating each other up, swatting at the puck once in a while. You remember the old joke... I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.

Then there was that one foreign guy who seemed to score every goal on every team -- Heshootzi. You know the guy. The commentator would scream, "Heshootzi sco-o-o-o-o-o-ores!"

I never understood the game. In fact, I could never see the puck at all, except on the instant replays. I went to a few IHL games with a friend of mine, and that was even worse. There was no instant replay and this friend of mine kept yelling, "Puck in the corner! Puck in the corner!" But there weren't any corners in the rink that I could see.

I didn't understand the officiating, couldn't follow what was going on, and had no clue as to whether or not there was actually any strategy involved. The only thing I knew was that the team with the most goals wins. I would do almost anything to avoid watching a hockey game.

Then I met the woman who would be my wife -- and she was an avid Red Wings fan. Grudgingly, I sat through many hockey games in the name of love.

But with time and patience, she was able to teach me a bit about hockey. And the more I watched it with her, the more I was able to follow the action. And the more I learned about what was going on, the more I got into the game. At one point, while jumping up and down "whooping" at the top of my lungs, I realized that I had seen the goal before the commentators had. And I had become a Wing-nut!

Mass is to many Catholics what hockey was to me.

It's something they endure each week, for whatever reason. And therein lies the problem.

This is by no means a theological statement, but in one sense you will only get out of mass what you put into it. But if you don't know what's going on, or if you only understand the very basics, it can be hard to become emotionally involved.

On the other hand, when you start to understand what the different parts of the mass mean, and you are able to "follow the action", you'll find yourself naturally becoming more involved. And the more you put yourself into the mass, the more you -- and everyone else -- will get out of it.

Going through the motions, reciting the prayers in a monotone without even thinking about the meaning of the words, snoozing through the homily, sneaking out right after communion -- that's just not going to get it. But I really believe that such apathy comes from a lack of understanding.

I think that if we learn more about the mass with our heads, then our hearts will soon follow. Perhaps we can all become more emotionally involved in liturgy, and truly come to love it. In that regards, at least, there certainly are similarities between liturgy and hockey!

Peace,
~Brandon