“ALL FOR ONE…”

Unlike the king in today’s gospel, they weren’t exactly marching to war, but if one was to judge by some of the coverage, it amounted to pretty much the same thing. Losing was just not an option – the morale of the country demanded victory – the President would not be very pleased with anything less than ultimate triumph. Having come so close on some previous occasions, surely on their home soil they would prove invincible? Alas, the Argentineans hadn’t read the script, and spoiled the party by actually having the temerity to win the opening game of the Rugby World Cup. (How the locals will react when Ireland beat them, the Lord alone knows!)

I won’t pretend that I follow sporting events very closely. I do have a broad general interest, and of course have my favourite teams. But I have very little time for all that nonsensical speculation, and rumour-mongering, that goes on between matches when filling column-inches seems more important than sticking to the facts. So I can’t tell you very much about the French team’s preparation for Friday night’s match. I do know they played a number of ‘friendly’ games, in which they did very well, and going by normal standards they would have put in a lot of hard work in getting themselves fit and ready for the big day.

And, indeed, the same hard work and preparation would have gone in to the preparations of all the teams participating. It’s a basic principle for success in any sphere – if one doesn’t do the necessary preparatory work one’s chances of success are likely to be greatly hampered. (Yes, I know, - ‘fail to prepare, and be prepared to fail’!) And one of the key elements in a team sport is getting the right blend of skills for the various positions in the team, and then getting all those skills working as a cohesive unit. (Are you beginning to see where this is going?)

Whatever the Rugby, or football or any other kind of sport fans may think, what we are about here in St. Joseph’s is of much greater significance and importance! We are a community, mainly of expats, (though of course we are very happy to have with us the many local French people who attend, and we extend to them not only a most sincere welcome, but also sincere condolences at this particular time, and assure them that we will be very happy for them to have a successful World Cup and to achieve a noteworthy second place!), where was I? O yeh, we’re a community who come together, and pray and work together, so that all may enjoy an atmosphere where the presence of God is manifest in the spirit of love and care for one another which animates our community.

And these next few week are particularly the time when the foundations will be laid, as it were. All the various areas of parish life and ministry are in need of volunteers, people who are prepared to give what time they can to building up our Parish spirit. While it’s nice to have ‘supporters’, we also need people on ‘the field of play’. So don’t waste these next couple of weeks – get to know more about your Parish, and where you can exercise your talents. It’s when working together, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we all end up ‘winners’!