by Paul O'Reilly, SJ
Last week, Frances asked me why I didn't preach about football any
more and if this was in any way connected to Liverpool's less than
brilliant start to the season. She, of course, supports Manchester
United.
I said "no, of course not, I was merely waiting for the right
occasion."
“Love your neighbour as yourself”.
Why not the people down the road?
or people in the next town?
Or people a safe distance away..?
Or the man in the moon?
Why your neighbour?
Well, I think we all know why
Liverpool versus Everton
Arsenal versus Tottenham
Celtic versus Rangers
Manchester United versus Manchester City.
Chelsea versus Fulham
Millwall versus, well, just about anybody really.
Neighbours are often the hardest people to love.
And so, when I hear these words of Jesus "Love your neighbour as yourself", I think of the worst day in British football in my lifetime, worse, far worse, than losing on penalties in the world cup quarter finals. You are all too young to remember it - but your parents will. It was the 15th April 1989.
It was Hillsborough.
What happened at Hillsborough was that there were too many people in
one place at one time.
They got crushed together - so crushed that 96 people were crushed
to death.
Half of them were teenagers.
The oldest of them was 67.
The youngest was just 10.
It was a terrible, terrible accident.
People argue to this day about whose fault it was.
But at the time, people were just numb with the grief of so many
young deaths -
One week after the accident, there was a memorial service for the
dead at Anfield. You can still see the pictures of it on the
internet. The first thing you notice is that the entire pitch is
covered with flowers, football scarves and football shirts.
But if you look more closely, the second thing you notice is that
about half of the flowers are red, but half of them are blue. They
blue ones are from Everton. That day they made a rope out of
Liverpool and Everton football scarves that stretched all the way
from Goodison to Anfield. The entire city of Liverpool was united in
its grief.
And if you look still more closely, you will see that some of the
blue scarves and shirts are from Manchester City and some of the red
ones are from Manchester United.
An entire nation was united in our club's grief.
I'll tell you a secret: since that day I have still always loved it
when we win, but I can now bear it when we lose - even, as we did
recently, to Manchester United - because I know that we have not
lost to an enemy, but to a neighbour.
Loving the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with
all our strength means recognizing the presence and goodness of God
in the other people God has created and placed alongside ourselves
in His World.
Loving your neighbour as yourself means that no matter what divides
us, there is something more - much more - which unites us.
As Christians, we call that the Presence of God.
I never thought I would say this -- and certainly never in public --
but I love Manchester United as I love my own team.
God Bless Football!
And God bless us all.
Mount Street Jesuit Centre,
114 Mount Street,
London SW1K 3AH.
ENGLAND.
fatbaldnproud@yahoo.co.uk