Pep-Rallies

So the other day I was in mass and as usual I got distracted. I found my mind wandering. What was I thinking about? Pep-rallies. When I was in junior high I remember hating pep-rallies. The entire school was forced to attend and the popular kids only drew more attention to themselves. When I got to high school the pep-rallies were no longer required, though I went to a few. During the average pep-rally some kids would get really into it though most students sat there enjoying it but never fully getting excited. At other times we would have pep-rallies for a big championship game at which almost everyone would get excited. It was at these pep-rallies that everyone could feel the students come together as one student body to be an encouragement for each other.

Eventually I realized I was getting distracted and I began to pay attention in mass. However, I couldn't help but think about what God intended to do for us through the mass. I began to think about all the times my parents forced me to go to mass against my will. I thought of how as I got older I grew tolerance for mass. Then I thought of my first mass after my conversion and how I felt when I finally began to participate in mass. It was there in my distractions that I began to see why God created such a thing as mass. Life is hard and it is full of struggles. God doesn't expect us to do it alone so he sent us His son Jesus to fight the battle for us. God gives us the mass as an opportunity to be with Jesus to remind us of the struggles ahead and prepare us for the fight ahead.

Now during my freshman year at Blinn College I had the opportunity to join a friend one night for what Aggies call, Midnight Yell. Midnight Yell is essentially a pep-rally but much more intense because you have all of the student body coming out to Kyle Field the night before any home game. Standing in that crowded stadium that night, feeling totally clueless as to what was going on, I experienced something amazing. Jocks were no longer jocks, freshman were no longer freshman, and every other title a person had disappeared. If you were there, you were an Aggie and that was all that mattered. It was that night that I first knew that I wanted to be an Aggie. I saw a spirit there that was like no other and I wanted it...bad.

Mass, in many ways, is like a pep-rally and Midnight Yell. What makes mass better is that the spirit of God is so much more powerful than any school spirit. I think at times we all forget how connected we all are with the rest of the Catholic church during each and every mass. Without the Holy Spirit to bind us with each other at mass, we having nothing. It is the mass that allows us to be one with the saints, the martyrs, family, and strangers alike. It is this spirit that we take with us on the journey to a high school pep-rally, to Midnight Yell, or wherever it may be that we come together in order to support and encourage of one another.