Fr Patrick Hederman OSB
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song . . .
Kevin de Bruyne, captain of team Belgium and star of Manchester City,
says the reason why Belgium is not playing today in the final of the World Cup is because their team is too old. They were the golden wonders, tipped to win the last World Cup in 2018, and yet, to date, Belgium is the only national team in the world, that has topped the FIFA rankings without ever having won a World Cup or a continental trophy. Kevin himself is 31 – and Belgium’s oldest players, two of them are all of 35. Just to put this in context, let me tell you that in the community here at Glenstal Abbey we have only one member who is
under 35. The rest, therefore, are losers on this reckoning.
So, what do we do when we reach a certain age and are out of the
running? Well, we could take a leaf out of Cristiano Ronaldo’s book. Having reached the ripe old age of 37, he is tearing up his contract with Manchester United, where he earns only £28.6 Million pounds a year, to negotiate a new contract with Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia which could be worth £172.9 million-a-year. What do you do with such a salary? Well, for a start, Ronaldo has a fleet of 20 limousines including one Lamborghini, two Rolls-Royces and a few Mercedes Benz. I suppose you take three of them for a drive each day for exercise, and keep your two favourites for a spin on Sundays.
Today is the Fourth Sunday in Advent. It has been the longest possible Advent, four full weeks, because Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year. Our Advent started a week before the World Cup. Anticipating this exciting clash between Advent and the World Cup, I asked a
member of our staff, who in his day played on the Limerick Hurling team: ‘seeing as Ireland has no team in this competition, I said, would you be inclined to support England, for instance, as our nearest neighbours and who have one or two Irish players on board?’ ‘Only if they were playing Tipperary,’ he replied. The World Cup, you have to say, unites people marvellously. It seems as if the world, which now, as of this year, makes up 8 billion people, morphs into two camps: no longer Moses or Methuselah but Messi or Mbappe. Every world
religion might envy the congregation which will gather this afternoon at three O’Clock to await the advent of our new world champions. Around three and a half billion watched the event in 2018. There may be more today.
But we are here this morning to celebrate an even greater excitement. Our Christian calendar asks us to hold onto our hats for another week because the final day of our Advent season is next Sunday, not this one. We have a week to prepare ourselves for one of the greatest events of the Christian calendar. Christmas celebrates the arrival on earth of Jesus Christ who, at the age of 33, won the only world cup really worth winning, whereby every member of Team Humanity, of Team World, if you like, is invited to share in his divinity. This means that whoever you are, wherever you are, no matter what age, colour, race or gender you happen to be, you can live, not simply until you are thirty-five or
thirty-seven, but forever and ever, in the company of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who created the universe and who hunger for your company until the end of time.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress.
Amen.