Six Things Being an Aggie Catholic Taught Me...

As a Texas girl, my dream was to become a Fightin’ Texas Aggie from a very young age. I loved the aspects of comradery, as well as this unknown spirit that seemed to bind them all together. There was nothing like seeing that famed Aggie ring on someone’s hand, and seeing how it brought together two complete strangers in conversation. After becoming an Aggie, I only further saw what all I had previously dreamed of come to life. I was the Aggie, and while I was under no forced need to follow Aggie tradition, I couldn’t help myself. I prided myself in it.

Following my collegiate career and graduation, I can still say that I have loved every minute of being an Aggie, but I can also say that being such has taught me a few things about being Catholic too. In one of those rare moments when the line between the heavenly and human seems to blur, I have started to see that what I really loved about Aggieland was the same things I loved about being Catholic. And if anything, it helped bring into sharp focus that the kind of person I fought to be was fundamentally built into my desires. So the six things I can say I learned about being Catholic from Aggieland are:

1) The 12^th Man

In Aggieland, we have a tradition that dictates that we all stand during the whole football game, ready if we should be called on. See, the idea behind this one is that everyone stands for the team. Mess with one, you mess with all. This is just as applicable to everyday life as a Catholic. We are not made to take our spiritual journeys alone. In fact, we are made for quite the opposite and are joined as the Mystical Body of Christ. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Cor 12:12) And yes, there is a certain irony that it’s the 12^th verse of the 12^th chapter because Aggies have this thing about the number twelve, also a huge number in the Bible.

2) Howdy

There is also a tradition that an Aggie says howdy to just about anybody he or she meets, be that a stranger or a friend, in order to spread that good Aggie cheer. Now, I have seen people go from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other just because someone took the time to be a friend. The word “howdy” derives from the phrase “How ya doing?” and that is a question that means more than just “hi.” It’s involving yourself in taking time to be there for someone and showing a care for what is going on for them. Nothing can amount to the love that can shine through a person in just carrying the light around and spreading it like wildfire. Same goes for God. Giving others even just a moment of your time is precious and means the world. Plus, it’s an opportunity to engage in what God asks of us to be. “The secret of everything is to let oneself be carried by God, and so to carry him to others” (Pope St. John XXIII).

3) Muster

Probably one of the most revered traditions in Aggieland is that we all muster one day of the year to celebrate and remember those Aggies who have passed away in the last year and say “here” as the role is called. The saying goes that wherever two or more Aggies are within a hundred miles of each other, they are obliged to gather and reminisce on their time as Aggie,s as well as on the lives of those Aggies who have passed. With the celebration of Muster, the Aggie Spirit stays strong. As a church, we are obliged to gather once a week (at least) to celebrate the life and death of our Savior, the pivot of our faith. And, in the highest form of worship, join together in prayer for those who have passed before us. The Spirit lives among us and fills our hearts, literally, with the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ in the Eucharist. “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20).

4) Saw ‘Em Off

Now under no circumstances am I saying that Longhorns are evil (No really, I know lots of people who became Longhorns and they are wonderful, Christ filled people.) But in Aggieland, we like to joke that we will ‘saw varsity’s horns off,’ as in, we will cut off the horns that charge against us. I will sadly admit that we frequently ran out of time in the football games (Aggies don’t win, they run out of time.) and the Longhorns would beat us. But somehow, we were determined to get back up and keep fighting. In the same way, we have to keep fighting against sin. We are called to take up our armor and keep going when the battle seems hard, and we are called to “cut off the horns of the wicked.” (Psalm 75:10).

5) An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal

Honor codes are built for the purpose of us accountable as people. Where there are guidelines, there are black and white lines of what is right and wrong. It gives us a character and goal for which to strive. God very clearly gave us the same code, and it included the ones that Aggies live by as well as others: the Ten Commandments. In order to keep help us strive for perfection, God laid his laws down in stone so there was never a question as to what was right and what was wrong, even though in reality these same laws are fundamentally written on our hearts.

6) Tradition

It’s ok to be seeped in tradition even when following the books. No really. See, the idea of having a good code to follow is great, but without tradition, it’s hard to follow. Tradition helps interpret what it means. In the same way that Aggies have tradition to define the code we built, God gave us the Tradition of the Church to interpret the Bible of the Church. The bible, as a whole, didn’t even appear until three hundred years after the Church was established.

So there you have it: six things that being an Aggie taught me about being Catholic. Although, as I write this, I have to question the opposite. I think maybe I had it backwards all along, and being a Catholic assisted me in being a good Aggie.