Sunday, June 28, 2026 – The Thirteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time
Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona is known for some memorable quotes, like the “Yogi-isms” of the great Yogi Berra. But unlike Yogi, Francona’s are a bit more meaningful and less humorous. I recently came across this one from Terry’s list.
Baseball is a game where failure is inevitable, but how you respond to that failure is what defines you.
I believe it is safe to say that this phrase captures the story of our lives.
Baseball teams try their darndest to win every game; yet the best teams will lose sixty to seventy games a season. They will have some good outings snatched away from them by fluke events in the later stages of a given contest.
Here at the parish, Father Mike and I, the Pastoral and Finance Councils do our very best to make sure St. Francis de Sales is a good and smooth-running parish. But “life happens” and things break unexpectantly and some plans do not work out as planned—often due to unexpected circumstances. Most of you can name these times when we were not at our best and those times when the unexpected happened. I have no doubt that you can name similar failures and disappointments in your home and family life when plans went awry or you had unexpected repairs to address.
In addressing how to respond to failure, it calls us to faith and a belief in the God-given abilities we have been graced with. Faith behooves us to believe that God can make all things new—no matter how bad the wreckage is. As co-creators with God, we have been blessed with various skills and abilities to make those things new. With these beliefs and abilities, how dare we “wave the white flag and give up.” Now, some situations will call for a profound reordering of what was, but good and new realities come forth from them.
I remember one grade school memory when one of my classmates had a horrible start to the day and got in a fair amount of trouble. But as the day proceeded, he worked hard and participated well. At the end of the day, the sister who was teaching us commented and affirmed how this student improved during the course of the day and turned that day from a negative to a positive. She made it clear she was proud of him.
In Scripture, the stories of dealing with adversity are plentiful. Be it Jesus, the Apostles, the prophets, and others, we can see how they delt with opposition and negative events to bring about something new. As we hear their stories every week, may we take note of them.
So, in the end, may we be resilient, strong, having the faith in God to respond accordingly to bring about renewed hope and life.