The Spirituality of Hockey
Bro. Joe CSSp
Novice Hockey Chaplain
The Doctors of the Church teach us the necessity and grace
of temperance in the healthy development of our spiritual life. To become truly
one with Christ, to dig deep into that reality of our spiritual soul, we need
to control and moderate the desires we have at the core of our being. Through
such acts we come to more clearly see the beauty of the gift of life and the
oneness we share with all of creation. Rarely in the modern world, the world of
“Just do It,” do such profound sentiments fall on fertile ground. Usually the
value of controlling and holding back our more base desires is seen as unneeded
and unwanted. To quote South Park, “I can do what I want,” tends to be our
motto.
I first must say, although I have become a die-hard Ghost
fan, I know next to nothing about the sport of hockey. You can’t entirely blame
me for this blatant oversight in my personal knowledge. Being from the West
Coast, sunny San Diego, before last year the closest I ever came to hockey was
the ice cubes in my Coke while I laid out at the beach. The first hockey game I
ever saw was last year at Grundy, when some of the freshmen asked if I would
come and watch the JV game. I was hesitant to say the least. In San Diego to
claim one is a hockey fan is like claiming membership in Al-Qaida, to claim
affinity to the antithesis of what we Californians see as our core values of
being laid back and relaxed (not to mention warm). For most of my life I had
always seen hockey as the red-neck sport of the East Coast and saw no need to
embrace this part of North East culture.
When I finally gathered the courage to attend my first game,
the first thing I was to behold opening the doors entering the rink at Grundy
was Spina skating at full speed toward a player from the opposing team. And
then, right in front of me, with full force, he slammed the dude against the
glass like a rag doll. “What in hell’s name are you doing!” ran through my
head. Spina recovered quickly, got the puck, left the other guy laid out on the
ice, and skated away. “I’m gonna have a talk with that boy tomorrow. He has
some anger issues he needs to work out.”
As I found my seat, tried to warm up, and the game continued
I realized this radical, uncontrolled, flagrantly brutal action was just part
of the game. It was exciting, fast, and fully physical. It was a blast! I have
gone to every game I can make since and have enjoyed all the games, whether we
win or lose. It is thrilling to bundle up and see such dedicated athletes
compete full force in a game they love.
Last week I attended one of the varsity team’s away games in
Jersey. I am not entirely sure what sparked the need for the team to have new
throwback jerseys, but they were playing in all their glory on the ice sporting
new shirts. What struck me most, emblazed on the front, was a fleur-de-lis, or
French tri-fold. It is quite striking compared to the normal intertwined “H”
and “G” of the team’s normal shirt. As my mind wandered I was reminded of
Ghost’s restored chapel’s ceiling and the fleurs-de-lis and stars recently added
there. That is when it hit me, the spirituality of hockey, the link between the
seemingly rough and violent sport and the lessons of the Doctors of the Church.
Although I am still learning the sport, I do know the
physicality of hockey and the drive it invokes in its advocates. There on the
ice, wrapped in pads and helmets, swinging large sticks
and tossing around a hard plastic puck, are young men
striving to win a very physical game. At times players cannot stop quick enough
to keep from plowing into other players (as Spina had on my first day.) Nor is
their aim for the puck always sure and they end up smacking an opponent. On
occasion you can hear the banter from the ice through the cracks in the glass,
enough to curl the hair of a sailor. But that is it! To take offense of every
slight, real or supposed, and then to lose control only means you will lose the
game. Often I have observed kids lose their temper and then you see the arm
come up, and the fist go down on the fully padded head of their adversary. In
all of this there is a consequence, the penalty box. Being there hurts you and
it hurts the team. It is best to be temperate in your actions, control those
emotions, keep a cool head on yourself. What a truly wonderful way to learn
such a value, to learn how to embrace the virtue. No Church Doctor can be as
clear to a young man as a hockey coach and referee can be. There are rewards to
temperance and value in its practice and I respect those padded young men who
are able to do it on the ice.
At any Catholic high school, or any family, often there is a
tension between academics, athletics, and spirituality. We often become very
myopic in whatever area we focus, and we lose sight of how valuable all areas
of our life can be to our development. Hockey may not be a perfect sport, nor
should it be the solitary focus of a person’s life, but it’s practice can
deepen the values needed to be a complete spiritual human person. And that is
what we are about here at Ghost, to form young men into complete human persons.
Sometimes, just sometimes, the Doctors of the Church can come to life on the
cold ice of a hockey rink.
