“One Too Many Buffalo Wings”
By Brian Flanagan, Fiat Ventures
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Throughout the Gospels, there are some one-liners that could be read with a deeper meaning, so the reader says, “Ah, clever, I see what you did there…” In the beginning of John’s Gospel, Jesus asks his first disciples, “What are you looking for?” That question has a surface-level meaning in the passage, but it’s one of those questions that we could all pause and ask ourselves, “Hmm…what am I looking for? I guess I’m looking for what’s going to make me happy. What’s fulfilling and satisfying”
In this week’s Gospel from Mark, we have another one of these one-liners. This time from St. Peter to Jesus; “Everyone is looking for you.” This is the answer to that first question Jesus posed. Everyone is indeed looking for him.
The issue is that most of the time we don’t realize that deep down we’re looking for Christ. We look to all different things to satisfy our hearts and make us happy; and some certainly do for a time. But in the end, we’re left still seeking. This weekend is a prime example of this; the Super Bowl.
Most of the country for a few hours will sit down and watch the Big Game, eating their favorite appetizers and keeping on the lookout for this year’s best commercials. For a few hours, everyone puts aside their concerns about school and work to take a breath and be with friends and family.
But that happiness and contentment starts fading pretty quickly. The first group to go back feeling unfulfilled is the fan base of the losing team. An emotional roller coaster to be sure, having been ecstatic at the beginning of the game for their team, to now being disheartened to say the least.
An hour later, the next group to feel less than satisfied are those who ate one too many buffalo wings. Their eyes had been wide at the beginning of the evening, looking over the spread of delicious snacks, but now they’re asking the host of the party if they have any Tums.
Probably the last group to lose this feeling of excitement for the Super Bowl is the fan base of the winning team. They may gloat for a few weeks about it, but then baseball starts up in the spring, then their football team loses in the first round of the playoffs the following fall, and 3 or 4 years down the road, they can barely remember which year their team won the Big Game, and what team they were playing.
Now it’s a great thing to enjoy the little things in life that can make us happy, but when we keep seeking that next “Super Bowl” experience, we’ll just be left with a series of disappointments when those things don’t make us truly happy in the end.
But that lasting happiness and peace that we seek comes from Christ. And this joy doesn’t fade, even when our team’s kicker misses that crucial field goal.
So as your evening winds down after watching the game, whoever wins and however much you regret eating 10 fried mozzarella sticks, ask yourself whether you’re really seeking Christ above all else, and whether the joy of the Super Bowl even comes close to the joy of knowing him.