God’s Definition of Victory

I looked forward to Easter every year when I was growing up. It wasn’t the chocolate or the Easter eggs that excited me. The celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection was always on my mind, but what I really looked forward to was the annual baseball game at my cousin’s house. My brothers and cousins played the same matchup each year: the oldest three cousins versus the youngest four. It was a mismatch, but I loved it. I loved being the underdog. My oldest cousin was five years older than me and about 60 pounds heavier. He was great at every sport, but in baseball, he was unstoppable.

Each year, the game was close, not because of our talent, but because my older cousin deliberately kept it close. His team won every year, with him hitting the game-winning home run in the last inning. After six straight losses, I longed for a win. My younger teammates even proposed changing up teams because they were sick of losing. But I definitely told them no!

That year, Easter Sunday was a bitterly cold day. Snow flurries whipped across my cousin’s backyard as we played.The bottom of the last inning arrived, and somehow, my team was ahead by two runs. I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes, but I dared to hope that this would be the year we won. The older team scored, and my oldest brother made it to third representing the tying run. Somehow, we managed to get two outs. My oldest cousin stepped up to the plate. My heart pounded.

He watched the first pitch go by, adding his perfected drama to the game. He swung at the next, chasing a bad pitch and missing. Maybe we could win this. Crack. The following ball came as a slow grounder straight toward me. I sprinted towards it, knowing he was very fast and could possibly out run my throw. Grabbing the ball, I fired it over to first base.

“Ahh” he yelled, slipping on the wet ground.
“Out,” my teammates shouted, cheering wildly. The underdogs had won!

Jesus’ resurrection is one of the greatest underdog stories ever. God, the author of all rules and almighty power, loves to work through what looks like the underdog. Perhaps it is because no one has been more pitted against than God. In reality, God is no underdog; He holds all the trump cards. Yet victory for Him is not smothering an opponent or the thrill of a close game. He does not delight in the conversion of a sinner on their deathbed because it was close. Rather, victory for God is a human soul realizing His love,even just a sliver of it, choosing to love Him back and then choosing to will the good of another. (CCC 1766).

The joy of victory is a phenomenon that is hard to explain. So too is the joy of the Resurrection. I can’t help but think of the joy the Blessed Mother felt. She watched her Son be tortured and die one of the most gruesome deaths imaginable. She saw His followers scatter and abandon Him. Though she knew He would rise, the pain and sorrow were so overwhelming that the Resurrection may have seemed far off.
Yet the glory of the Resurrection is so powerful that, as grievous as Good Friday was and as anxious as Holy Saturday felt, the Resurrection made all that intense suffering meaningful.
So it is in our own lives. God’s love is always present, even when suffering seems to hide it. Yet it is often in that very suffering that we experience His love most profoundly and triumphantly. This is why Christ underwent death—to conquer it—so that we might no longer be separated from the fullness of God’s glory and love.

Today, let us ask Mary to share with us the joy she experienced on Resurrection Sunday. May that joy give us the strength to endure whatever suffering we face and to share that hope with those around us.