Sunday, November 9, 2025 – The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Those of you who know me well will understand I could not pass up writing and pontificating about the World Series Game Three between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers. A memorable game the Dodgers won 6-5 but took eighteen innings and 6:38 to play, ending at 3:00 A.M. our time. And yes, I was up on that Monday night-Tuesday morning to the bitter end. But, wow, what a game of wonders. I was fairly functional on that Tuesday living off of three hours of sleep.
This game made me recall I book I read years ago about baseball’s longest professional (minor league) game by author Dan Barry, Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption And Baseball’s Longest Game (Harper, Perennial). Regarding this minor league game, Barry writes on page 14 “Someone not here tonight could pose quite legitimate questions to the players and fans, questions that would naturally start with why. Why did you keep playing? Why did you stay? —Because we are bound by duty. Because we aspire to greater things. Because we are loyal. Because in our own secular way, we are celebrating communion, resurrection, and possibility.” For context’s sake, this longest game was played on Holy Saturday night-Easter Sunday morning, April 1981.
Let’s leave the confines of baseball and apply Barry’s words to our day-to-day Christian lives. Not everything in life can be solved/delt with quickly in today’s “instant” society. There is so much which takes time and requires vigilance and great perseverance awaiting positive results. We wait, and we wait in confident expectation of good outcomes which God will provide. Our baptism and our belief in God behooves us to be loyal and steadfast as we aspire to greater things for the greater good. When others grow tired of waiting and “throw in the towel”, we stay awake and alert, as the sentinels await the dawn. We wait, as is our custom in the Advent season preparing for the Savior to come anew in our lives. This waiting is driven by the belief that God can bring about “possibility,” of making all things new with new life (resurrection) which will be lifegiving for us all. We wait and we hope in faith. And you know, that waiting could be “as long as a piece of string.” O, how countercultural in our present day. When Dan Barry mentions communion, I will equate that with community. We wait together as a faith community and support each other for the unfolding of God’s designs—offering encouragement as needed.
As we wait, perhaps in the “countless innings” of our lives, we do so because we are loyal to God, knowing that God has great plans for us and we have this conviction of great possibility of as the Book of Revelation states “ A new heavens and a new earth.” This marathon of waiting demands faith. We pray for patience, perseverance, and deep faith as we await a better tomorrow.