Given my almost preternatural lack of mathematical skills,it probably surprises some that I have always loved statistics. Perhaps the only stats that I enjoy more than old baseball stats are the hypothetical stats that only God would know. How many times have I sneezed in my life, who scored more points in pickup basketball games between me and my dad; you know, the really important things. Towards the end of seminary, I started wondering how many
vocation talks I must have given to high school and junior high classes. Conservatively, it must have been over a hundred. In virtually every one of those talks, we talked with the kids about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Whether they wanted to be star athletes, musicians, or business people, there was one thing that was universally true: no one wanted to be mediocre.
Even if we don’t ultimately pursue a career which is considered glamorous in the public eye, there
is an innate desire for greatness that is built into each one of us. As St. Catherine said, “Be what you were meant to be, and you will set the world on fire.” This Saturday the Church celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI, in one of his Immaculate Conception homilies, explained why the Church asks us, under pain of sin, to celebrate the
Eucharist together in honor of the BlessedMother’s moment of creation: