Question of Faith
A weekly question of faith answered by Cleveland Catholics. Fr. Damian Ference, Vicar of Evangelization and Deacon Mike Hayes Director of Young Adult Ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland co-host with frequent guests from the Diocesan Office who join in the conversation.
Question of Faith
Should you Root, Root, Root for the Home Team? Or the Team Where You Live Now?
Choosing between your heart and your home can be quite the conundrum, especially when it comes to sports. Deacon Mike is torn between rooting for the Cleveland Guardians and his hometown New York Mets as they advance in the playoffs. Father Damian Ference gives us some insights on his hometown pride. Should childhood allegiances last beyond moving to a new city?
Journey with us through the bustling streets of New York City, where history and spirituality collide. FD's shares information on iconic NYC landmarks like the Cloisters and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, from his recent NYC Trip along with St. Vincent Ferrer Parish for this week's Church Search.
Scripture this week brings us into exploring the concept of growth through suffering experiences, likening it to the transformative power of the Paschal mystery. You can read this week's readings here.
Whether you're a die-hard sports fan, a history enthusiast, or someone seeking inspiration in personal growth, this episode is a tapestry of devotion and resilience. Join the conversation and reflect on your own experiences with faith, sports, and personal evolution.
On today's Question of Faith. Should you root, root, root for the home team or the team where you live now? Hey everybody, this is Question of Faith. I'm Deacon Mike Hayes. I'm the Director of Young Adult Ministry here in the Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 2:And I'm Father Damian Ferentz, a vicar for evangelization.
Speaker 1:Well, I have a dilemma. Go for it. It's a big one.
Speaker 2:I think I know what it is, but go for it. It's a big one. I think I know what it is, but go for it.
Speaker 1:Well, so right now, our Cleveland Guardians here are in the playoffs. The Guardians play the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. Now, I'm not a Yankee fan, even though I'm from New York. However, the New York Mets are playing the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. If the Guardians and the Mets advance, I've got a problem. Yeah, because I have followed these Guardians. You know, ride or die all year long, but I grew up as a Mets fan and the Mets haven't won the World Series in a long time. You know, I was 16 years old the last time they did it. They've been in the World Series a couple times since then, but have not won it.
Speaker 2:Cleveland hasn't won a World Series since 1948, brother.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm with you, Don't worry, and I think I said this to you before. I said you know, I've seen my team win a World Series. It would really be great to see this team win a World Series. So you can see where I'm sort of leaning already. But one of my colleagues said well, if the Mets and the Guardians get in the World Series, you can't lose. Yeah, that's true, and I was like well, well, you can't.
Speaker 2:You should still root for the Guardians, because they're the ultimate underdog, and I think Christians should always root for the ultimate underdog. The Indians Guardians have been in the World Series three times in my lifetime 95, 97, and 2016. 2016 would have been a great year to win because yeah, we 97 and 2016. 2016 would have been a great year to win because played the cubs that year.
Speaker 2:Right, well, we won the nba championship earlier that year and then it was the year my dad died too, in may, and I thought, man, what a year to win cleveland championships, um, but we were up 3-1 and then blew that 3-1 lead, just as golden state was up 3-1 and blew their lead and the Cavs won. But yes, so I understand the dilemma. But I talked to someone recently we did a podcast with Chris Scalia about the Hillbilly Thomas book and he asked me he said you are so pro-Cleveland, why do you love Cleveland so much? Because I talk about it a lot and post online. I said because it's home I talk about it a lot and post online.
Speaker 2:I say because it's home, and I think people who aren't somehow proud of their home, even if they've had a hard time there, even if they've suffered or some terrible things that happened there's something about where you're from that's always going to matter, and I think you should probably root for the Mets if they play the Guardians, because that's your home. It's where you're from and there's something to be said about that. I lived in DC for a couple years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to ask you that it was the first year actually that Nationals Park opened because Benedict XVI came there, I want to say April 14th or May 14th or something 2008.
Speaker 2:And that was the first event there, in fact, that's right. And I was there, ah nice, and I went to a Nationals game, but I would root for the Nationals as long as they weren't playing the Indians at the time or the Guardians, and I used to go. I mean, I saw the Wizards play, so I would root for another team unless they were playing Cleveland.
Speaker 1:I'm always rooting for Cleveland, I would betray my land. It's a little bit of a backstory. So I covered baseball when I was in the media, right, and I was basically the backup locker room reporter. So Susan Waldman covered the Yankees, Ed Coleman covered the Mets. And what they would do is they would send me to the opposing team's locker room and I'd interview whoever was the star of the game or the go-to-the-game even, and then I'd bring something back and if I got anything good, they'd use it and they'd give me credit. Wfan's.
Speaker 1:Mike Hayes caught up with Mo Vaughn after the game and here's what Vaughn said, right, and sometimes I'd use my question to be nice, you know, and get my voice in the air, which was nice of them to do. And the Mets treated me and my media colleagues so horribly that I stopped rooting for the Mets at one point. Now I'd rather chew my left arm off than root for the Yankees. I mean, it's like rooting for the Roadrunner, you know. Yeah, and when I grew up, I grew up with a bunch of people in the neighborhood who were like diehard Yankee fans in the late 70s when I was really little right and the Yankees won the World Series like every year then? Well, only two years, but still.
Speaker 2:They were in the.
Speaker 1:World Series three years in a row. That time there was 76, 77, 78. And they lost in 76 to. The Reds beat the Dodgers in 77 and 78. And so I just hated the Yankees because I wanted to root for the Mets. I wanted to root for someone else. I was sort of contrarian at the time, and so I grew up with the Mets. And then they won the World Series in 1986, greatest year ever. And you know, since then, until I covered them, I was a diehard Met fan and they kind of ruined it for a while. I was like boy, these guys are jerks. You know it was the Bobby Bonilla, brett Saberhagen, vince Coleman Mets. You know the ones that squirted bleach at the reporters one time and really hurt somebody too.
Speaker 1:You know Lit bleach at the reporters one time and really hurt somebody too. You know lit firecrackers in front of the media one day. That's not what you want about the media. I mean, we're not fun to be around sometimes but still, and so I just kind of stopped rooting for a while. But now nobody's involved with the Mets who are from that era, so I kind of have come back into the fold and I have followed them this year for a good deal of it.
Speaker 2:And they have followed them this year for a good deal of it. And they have Frankie Lindor, who used to play for us Correct Now. That's often what has made good teams. Great is that they get former Cleveland players on their team Because we are a small market team. Of the four teams that are currently in the MLB playoffs, we have by far the smallest market and the smallest payroll.
Speaker 1:Yes, correct, that was part of my homily last week. Your money will not save you, especially if you have the Yankees, the Mets or the Dodgers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so again, if you're a Christian, you should be rooting for the little guy here, like the little David going up against Goliath. So New York, it's a city I love I just got back from there for the weekend and LA and then Cleveland. So Cleveland against the world.
Speaker 1:I think we're all in agreement that LA needs to lose. Yeah, I cannot stand the Dodgers.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't like the Yankees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I don't like the Yankees either.
Speaker 2:However, if the Yankees were playing the Dodgers, I'd probably root for the Yankees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I would too, because I like New York more than I like LA. And I would say this that when I covered the Yankees and the Mets, the Yankees treated me very, very well and I covered the World Series with them in 96, and I still have like a champagne-soaked shirt that still smells like champagne to this day from that, and that was a lot of fun. But again, I'd rather chew my left arm. I mean, I've had so many good Yankee experiences that I'm not sure why I'm not a Yankee fan, is what a lot of my friends will say.
Speaker 1:So the first game I ever went to with my dad was the day after Thurman Munson died, or it was the day of Thurman Munson's funeral, I should say. And Bobby Mercer gave the eulogy at Thurman Munson's funeral. And for those who don't know, thurman Munson was a Yankee catcher who died in a plane crash. He had a private plane and he would fly it from New York to Canton, ohio. He did not live far from where we are right now, so he could be closer to his family and make it easier for him to see his family. Well, he miscalculated in the plane crash and he died.
Speaker 1:And so I go to this game with my Little League team and my dad and Bobby Mercer gave the eulogy that day and they were going to give him the night off because he was just so emotionally drained. And he went to Billy Martin, who was the manager, and said you know, billy, I think I want to play tonight. He's like yeah, and he was like yeah, I can play. So he put him in the lineup, he crushes a home run to cut the Baltimore lead to 5-5 to—no sorry 4-3. And then he gets up in the bottom of the ninth and hits a game-winning single to drive in the two runs, gets all five RBIs in the game and the Yankees win 5-4. And the whole place was like crying, everybody's huddled around them out in the field.
Speaker 1:It was the first game I've ever been to. It was at Yankee Stadium and I hated that. I was going to Yankee Stadium because I was a Mets fan. But what a game. And I was like maybe these guys aren't so bad. And I was like, no, come on, let's not be ridiculous.
Speaker 2:I never went to the old Yankee Stadium, but two years ago I was on fall break in New York City and the Guardians were playing I don't know if they were still the Indians two years ago, guardians, Whatever and it was game three and we won in New York, and that was something. And then last night, father Eric Garris and I were in the city for the weekend and we had hoped when I planned this trip. I thought maybe we'd play the Yankees and maybe we'd see them play Sunday or a Monday afternoon game. So I got a flight out at 9 pm. Well, lo and behold, the game was at Yankee Stadium at 7 pm.
Speaker 2:So we were watching on his iPad and it didn't end well. No, it didn't end well. And you know what else didn't end well? That someone decided to fly take off on the wrong runway at 840. So we got delayed getting out of there until 1030 because they had to reroute all the planes. It was a mess, but so we lost the game. And as we were taking off, we flew over the Bronx and I saw Yankee Stadium go in there. And you know let me say this now too Mr Travis Kelsey was there last night with his girlfriend.
Speaker 1:Taylor Swift? Yes, he was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know what's bull? He didn't have any Cleveland gear on Ooh, and he's from Cleveland and he's so proud. But come on, Travis Got to represent.
Speaker 2:I mean you could go in there just dressed in your New York black but then put on like the Guardians baseball hat or something, give a little something to tea because you know, eventually you're going to marry her. You know that, and your family's from Cleveland and Cleveland wants to embrace Taylor Swift. She already, new York already likes her. But come on, that's true, come on, I was a little disappointed, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, at least he was there disappointed, you know Well, at least he was there. Everyone thinks it's cool to and like. Lebron James used to like the Yankees, and I guess he still does. It is America's team and it's easy to like teams that win all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but like I said, it's like rooting for the roadrunner. My wife has asked me she goes. How many championships do the Yankees want? I said 27,. Don't remind me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's as Flannery O'Connor says it's much harder to not believe than believe.
Speaker 1:Right, and I think the same is true when it comes to being a Cleveland sports fan. Let's not talk about the Browns, by the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah no, I wasn't about to. This isn't a sports talk show, but we're talking about faith.
Speaker 1:That's right. Well, our faith does lead us to these things sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, certainly.
Speaker 1:About dedication and about community in some ways right and discernment. How do you discern what team to root for? You always just rooted for the Browns and the Guardians, or the Indians at the time.
Speaker 2:And the Cavs Always Cleveland sports all the way through.
Speaker 1:Right Never tempted by another team.
Speaker 2:Not that I recall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say you do seem pretty enamored by it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, and keep in mind, I've lived here most of my life. Two years in DC and three in Rome, but all my studies and my friends, like my home is, cleveland is certainly home to me, born and baptized, you know.
Speaker 1:And I got to tell you I'm just happy to be back in a city that has major league baseball again, because I lived in Buffalo for 11 years where they didn't have, they had a minor league baseball team but you know, no one goes. And again, sort of like the Yankees, I'd rather chew my left arm off than root for the Bills who beat my Jets last night after that was a horrible game. I like the Bills.
Speaker 2:Well, because again it's city. It's cities If we're not playing them. I like the Bills Right exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, I'm not a huge, I'm not a fan of the Bills at all, mostly because when I was 11, they were playing the Jets in the playoffs and the Jets were. They were playing pretty well, but they were down by four in the fourth quarter, were playing pretty well, but they were down by four in the fourth quarter. And this guy, derek Gaffney, was one of their wide receivers and he had like the game of his life. He was like four for 90 or something, with at least one touchdown.
Speaker 1:And they dropped back and the quarterback was this guy named Richard Todd and he goes to throw the ball into the end zone. And here's Derek Gaffney, arms outstretched, no-transcript, and that ended the game and I was like ah, and my little 11-year-old heart was crushed. And there was this one build. And I was watching it in my church hall with the altar boys. We had a little gathering just to watch a Jet game and there was this one builds fan in there. I don't know how he got out of there alive, but we chased him around the church hall, tackled him to the ground.
Speaker 2:Had the Jets won a Super Bowl 69. All right, that's good enough, browns never have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I wasn't alive then. Neither were you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's still that's true. They at least won a Super Bowl. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Browns have. Yeah, have not, have not, and it doesn year. What can you?
Speaker 2:do. Well, we can go to church. We can, and so you went to church in Manhattan, right yeah, yesterday, father Garris and I, we went uptown to the Cloisters. He had never been.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great. He's never been there. That's a hidden gem of New York, yeah.
Speaker 2:Rockefeller purchased a bunch of old parts of monasteries in Europe and then had them reassembled in this wonderful museum that pretty much houses all medieval art, most of it's Christian art, and it's a gorgeous place to see that kind of art because it feels like it's sitting in its natural habitat.
Speaker 1:And it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Then we went down to the Met, because they're owned by the same museum, so you don't have to pay twice. One pass of the day, yeah, yeah. And then we wanted to visit some churches, so we went to Vincent Ferrer, which is the Dominican church on 66th and Lexington, correct, and then we had to walk around the Columbus Day Parade because that was getting ready and the streets closed down, but we went into St Pat's.
Speaker 2:so took some time for prayer in each. Pierre Toussaint, who's the black Catholic who helped pay for the old St Patrick's Cathedral, is now in the new St Patrick's Cathedral, because I visited the old one last time and I wanted to pray at his body but they moved it uptown. So I prayed there a little bit too, and at the St Joseph altar, and then for the blessed sacrament, and then um, and then we had to head it back home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mary and I. Mary and I went to St Patrick's when we were last in New York, a couple of weeks before you were there, and, um, she has a great devotion to St Elizabeth day on the seat as a side altar there, so we prayed there for a little while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were going to go up and see Cabrini's tomb, but it was closed on Monday. Oh, really that's weird, a cool thing about St Patrick's Cathedral. If you're not aware, you are I'm sure, but they hang cardinals' hats up on the ceiling their red hats.
Speaker 1:I'm glad that you said that, because I was looking for them the last time I was there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's one on the side. I noticed it and it's got the tassels along the side. So the tradition is they hang the cardinal's hat up there to remind people to pray for the cardinal, and when it corrupts, the material that the hat is made of corrupts enough and it falls to the ground, that's when you know he's finally out of purgatory and into heaven. I think that's a pretty cool tradition.
Speaker 1:The other cool story, and I don't know the name of the archbishop, but most of the cardinal archbishops of New York have been Irish. There is one who is French and I don't remember the year and I don't remember his name. It's horrible. I should have looked this up before I came on, but I didn't know we were going to talk about this. And when he was dying he said that he wanted to be buried on the sidewalk side of St Patrick's so that he would be out on the sidewalks. He said because these Irish people have been walking all over me the whole time I've been here, they might as well keep doing it.
Speaker 2:I know there's one archbishop who has never made a cardinal and he was an Americanist and he got in some serious battles with Dorothy Day. We should have Father Joe Mamich on one day to talk about him, because he's a big American Catholic history buff. But, yeah, there's a lot of. If you've not been to New York City, it's a great city to visit and there's beautiful churches there too, and it's nice when they're open.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and my home parish, st Paul the Apostle, is the second biggest next to St Patrick's in the city. It's also very lovely, and Isaac Hecker, who's an American Catholic, who's the founder of the Paulist, he's buried there also. He's up for something venerable he's a servant of God, and so they're doing the cause. Now. It's been going pretty well Cool, but yeah. So St Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan. Anything special about St Vincent's Beautiful?
Speaker 2:windows. It's clean. It's one of those churches when you go in even if you weren't a believer you'd be like this is a holy place. I want to kneel down and pray now.
Speaker 1:Great. I'm trying to remember if I've ever been there. I've definitely walked past and I've definitely been there for a meeting, but I think I was only in the rectory for the meeting. I'm not sure if I've ever been in the church. Next time, next time I'm back home, I will be there. So I'm still caught in this dilemma between the Mets and the Guardians, but that's okay.
Speaker 2:Well, they both have to win their series first. They both have to win their series first.
Speaker 1:So let's wait until we get there, right, yeah, there, right, yeah. But uh, I would say that I I am leaning at least toward the guardians a little bit only because I'm not a big pete. Alonso fan and cleve, you know you said things about home. You know cleveland, just recently probably, has really started to feel like home, you know, and not necessarily more than new york. You know home is home, right, yeah. But you know we've kind of settled in here. We kind of feel like this is, this is home now. You know home is home, right, yeah. But you know we've kind of settled in here. We kind of feel like this is home now. You know it's been nice.
Speaker 2:Do you know who would be the home team? If we do, we have a better record than the Mets. Do you know that?
Speaker 1:Because the Yankees? Yes, they do, we do Because, well, you won the division, okay, and the M, so we would have home field that would be cool. Yeah, we'd have home field.
Speaker 2:And it's 2-3-2, right, correct yeah.
Speaker 1:So that would be, good.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:So scripture for this week. I'll be preaching this week Gospel who's the greatest? Can we sit at your right? James and John Go to Jesus and say can we sit at your right and your left? It is not for me to give, he says I always think about. Did you ever have to go and ask for a raise or a promotion from your boss and then, if you got it, the rest of the employees all resented you, even though you were the one who had the guts?
Speaker 1:to go and ask, and I was like the rest of the disciples. You can only imagine how outlandish they thought this was. And then it becomes not who do you think you are, but more like don't you know who I am. And then that's what Jesus rails against at the end. So that's what I'll probably preach on this week.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll get to that gospel, but it's set up by the first reading from Isaiah about the suffering servant which is Jesus himself. It's the prediction, the prophecy of Isaiah, jesus himself. It's the prediction, the prophecy of Isaiah. Because of his affliction, he shall see the light and fullness of days. Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many and their guilt he shall bear. And so here's Jesus and James and John.
Speaker 2:Will we be first in the kingdom? And he's saying okay, what it means to be first in my kingdom is not worldly power and authority, the way that you normally think about it. It's actually going to entail great suffering on your behalf and the complete emptying of yourself, which eventually they understand, but only after Jesus himself goes through his death and resurrection. And I think a good reminder to people and I need it too constantly is that your suffering does have meaning, especially when it feels like it doesn't and you feel like quitting. Stay in it because the Lord is at work. And the Lord himself, three times in the garden, said let this cup pass from me. And even on the cross his experience of abandonment was real, like God, oh God, why have you forsaken me? But the father never forsook. That's a word right.
Speaker 2:The son and pulled him through it. But, man, a lot of times when you're really going through the most transformational moments in your life, it feels like you're death, because it is because you're dying to an old way of being and being transformed into something new. So that's very important to keep in mind.
Speaker 1:And I'm preaching myself there too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, yeah and.
Speaker 1:I'm preaching myself there too. Yeah, right, yeah. And if you don't suffer, you don't grow. Yeah, you know, that's the main thing, so you, want to grow. Yep Darn it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's that darn Paschal mystery again. I know it keeps coming back.
Speaker 1:Anyway, glad you had a good time in.
Speaker 2:New York and go Guardians Go.
Speaker 1:Guardians Go Mets. That's right, and hopefully we'll see both of those teams in the World Series and we'll have this and a whole lot more next time here on Question of Faith. We'll see you then.
