The Greatest!!!

It was a different school night for me on February 25, 1964. I had to go to bed at 9:30 or so. But this 11 year old did not want to go to sleep. That part was normal. I was always making excuses for staying up later. Sometimes it was my sister snoring (Kathy doesn't snore)who slept on the other end of our upstairs bedroom. Often I blamed it on my little brother Stephen since he slept in the twin bed next to mine. He was either making the springs squeak, or talking in his sleep, or some other bogus excuse for me being able to spend more time downstairs with Dad and Mom or watching TV. This night was different. Olympic Champion Cassius Clay from Louisville, KY was fighting the evil and violent Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight Championship of the World. And Dad was listening to it on the radio. Although rules were rules and bedtime was bedtime, I stayed awake in my bed trying to listen to to the radio through the floor and the stairwell to keep up with the fight. I couldn't make out many of the announcer's words but I could tell from his excitement that it was going longer than expected. I could also tell by the shrill pitch of his voice that Clay was doing well. As the fight went on I slunk out of bed, crawled on my belly to the top of the stairs, and tried to listen with all the strength my ears could muster to the progression of the fight. When, finally, Cassius Clay, from my home state, knocked out the much stronger and brutal Sonny Liston, I could tell by the delirious blabbering of the announcer that something big had happened. That's when I blew my cover and kind of whisper yelled downstairs to Dad, "Did he really win it?" Dad came to the door of the stairwell with a big grin on his face and said, "He's the new Champ!" Then I could hear soon to be Muhammad Ali's voice coming out of the tinny speaker yelling something. I asked Dad, "What's he saying?" Dad though he was saying, "I'm the King of the world!!!" He was actually saying, "I shook up the World!" But I like Dad's version better.

Later Ali became controversial for all sorts of reasons. He liked to brag on himself and belittle his opponents. He switched to the Islamic religion and changed his name. He was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War and had to hang up his boxing gloves for his prime years of boxing as a punishment. He returned to the ring and won back his title. He fought way past retirement time and became kind of a sad figure. Since his retirement he has become a man who was once an icon because of his speed and ability to out think and out box every opponent and now he's an icon because of his ability to be a world peacemaker. Despite his controversial side, Ali has been a hero of mine since I was almost eight and he won the Olympic Gold Medal.

But he is not the "King of the World". Neither is Barak Obama, Osama bin Laden, Rush Limbaugh, Pope Benedict XVI, or any other human being.

I think it is okay to have role models and heroes. I have several. Some are priests. Others are faithful and courageous plain old folks. One of the reasons to have heroes is to try to be like them. Although I know that God has made me uniquely as His own and for a special purpose according to His design, I still like to look at the qualities that I admire in others, and then make them my own. I know now that I don't need to parrot everything about a person to imitate them.

November 22nd is the Feast of Christ the King. He is the only real King of the World. How do you make Him the ruler of your life? How do you try to imitate Him? Do you attempt to imitate the qualities of Him that you see in others?

peace,
Fr. Chuck

PS. I'll be tweeting from the National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas City from Nov. 19-22. You can follow "frchuck" on Twitter if you wish. It ought to be fun and exciting to see 22,000 teen aged Catholics living and exploring their faith together!! Check it out.