Please Don’t Talk During the Commercials

“Please Don’t Talk During the Commercials…” by Brian Flanagan

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday is the Super Bowl, and if you’re like me and almost 80% of Americans, there’s only one thing you’ll be focused on – the commercials. Normally when you’re watching your favorite prime-time show, you ask your brother to wait until a commercial to finish telling you what happened his buddy in gym class that day. If you ask your mom what’s for dinner while she’s watching the news, she might say “SHHHH wait until a commercial.”

But not for the Super Bowl. At virtually every Super Bowl party, there are a couple of die-hard football fans glued to the TV for every down, but the rest of the group is meandering around the living room and the kitchen chatting and stuffing their faces with mozzarella sticks. When the commercials come on, everyone rushes back to the TV and other than their laughter, you can hear a pin drop.

Most of us aren’t really interested in the game itself at all. Probably at least half of us couldn’t have named this year’s two teams until this week, and I for one have no memory of who played in last year’s Super Bowl (I just looked it up and the Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos which I guess sounds familiar). As a general rule, we don’t love the Super Bowl at all – we love everything that goes along with the Super Bowl – the get-togethers, time with friends and family, the snacks, the commercials, but the game itself is an afterthought.

The Psalm this week references the Israelites at Meribah, where they hardened their hearts because they felt like the LORD wasn’t coming through for them. They loved the LORD when he worked his wonders in Egypt and parted the Red Sea, but once things started to get tough, they turned on him and started saying things like “at least when we were in Egypt we had plenty of Dunkin’ Donuts to drink and Netflix to watch”.

They were never really focused on the LORD himself at all – they just liked the perks and everything that came along with being his people. Just like us and the Super Bowl. God had to purify them of this in various ways until they learned to focus on God for his own sake, not because of all the awesome things he did for them. That’s true worship.

Now I’m not suggesting that we all make a concerted effort to watch every play during this year’s Super Bowl, but when it comes to our life of faith, this is important to remember. We can’t just jump on the bandwagon and give thanks to God when things are going well and then bail on him when things are tough. The opposite is true too; we can’t only turn to God when things are tough and then act like we don’t need him when everything is peachy.

Our spiritual life can’t be based on how things are going. When a couple gets married, they vow to love one another in good times and in bad – and in the same way God deserves our focus no matter what. So don’t be a Catholic just for the commercials and the mozzarella sticks – put your focus where it should be 🙂