Backyard Garden Today

Tonight I went to a Milwaukee Bucks basketball game with Pat and a good friend. My friend sharea similar concerns about peace and justice that we do. He too, like me, went to Marquette University High School, a local Catholic Jesuit school, and was “ruin by the Jesuits” believing he was to practice what was preached and taught to him as Catholic social values. He is not a sports fan, not even watching it on TV which I do. But we got some free tickets to the game tonight. He was shocked by the high price of parking, $25, and found a place nearby for free. The game the Milwaukee Bucks vs. the Chicago Bulls was one sided, favoring the Bulls, and for parts of the game he fell asleep. So did I wink out for awhile leaving only Pat, my wife, really into the game.

Watching the game on TV is one thing, since I can be doing something else the same time and have a better view, but watching the seats from way up in the top rows was something else. We were surrounded by Chicago Bulls fans that cheered and yelled loudly whenever something good happened for the Bulls in the game.

I told my friend afterwards that this was a reverse Inculturation experience for him. “Inculturation is a term used in Christianity, especially in the Roman Catholic Church, referring to the adaptation of the way Church teachings are presented to non-Christian cultures, and to the influence of those cultures on the evolution of these teachings. For my friend and for me it was an experience of how many have adapted or ignored the teachings and way of the Church to modern culture. The people at the basketball game live in another world segregated from the poor and those who struggle for peace and social justice. Learning about their world is useful for those of us who were crazy enough to believe the Jesuits that we should live our faith and values in our daily lives. What changed since the 60’s and early 70’s when students cheered for their basketball game but also were out there on the streets demanding social justice and peace?

I guess my friend and I never go the memo saying how volunteering time or donating money to help the poor and outcast not demanding social change was the way to be. But some of us cannot change or ignore our conscience so we will always stay feeling uncomfortable paying a lot of money and time watching grown men play a game in an arena. I wonder if there were any Romans in the coliseum watching the games of throwing Christian to lions that felt uncomfortable with the games.

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