Reflection / Sean Gallagher

Late-game heroics show that victory is still possible after many sinful defeats

I’ve played many bad rounds of golf over the years. I’ve hooked so many drives, three-putted so many greens and lost so many balls that the memories of them have all just merged together into something I’d rather forget.

But I’ve also found that the many bad shots of one round can be quickly washed away by one or two tremendous ones. An approach shot that has a beautiful arc and lands nicely right on the green. A long winding putt that goes in the hole. Those are the golf memories that stick in my mind years after I’ve hit those shots.

The game the Indianapolis Colts played last Sunday against the Denver Broncos at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is kind of like that for me.

Going into the game, the Colts were expected to win fairly easily. Their record was 4-2, and they had just won two consecutive games against strong opponents. On the other hand, the Broncos were struggling at 2-5.

But Denver’s defense stifled the Colts’ offense for almost the entire game. Every yard they gained—and there weren’t a lot through most of the contest—was a struggle. And Adam Vinatieri, the Colts’ renowned place kicker, had a difficult day, too, missing a field goal and an extra point attempt.

Those two misses allowed the Broncos to hold a narrow 13-12 lead late in the game. Then the Colts got back the ball with less then two minutes to play and no time-outs.

On the first play of this drive that started deep in Colts’ territory, Jacoby Brissett, the Colts’ quarterback, was pressured almost immediately after the snap by Broncos linebacker Vonn Miller, one of the best pass rushers in the NFL.

It looked like Miller was going to throw Brissett down in the Colts’ end zone for a safety. But then Brissett spun out of Miller’s grasp, ran off to his right and threw a pass 35 yards down the field to Colts’ wide receiver T.Y. Hilton who caught the pass, his feet just barely in bounds.

A few plays later, with 22 seconds left on the clock, Vinatieri came back out on the field to try a 51-yard field goal that would give the Colts their first lead of the game.

He put out of his mind the two kicks he had missed earlier in the game, focusing entirely on the task at hand. And, like the greatest of all time he’s been aptly described, he put the kick straight between the uprights to put the Colts ahead 15-13.

Soon thereafter, the Colts and their fans celebrated an improbable victory that had seemed out of reach just a few minutes before.

Like my memories of so many bad golf rounds marked by one or two good shots, when I think back on this game, I’ll remember Brissett’s amazing pass to Hilton and Vinatieri’s game-winning kick.

I think God’s memory kind of works that way when he views our lives filled with so many sins.

When we, with contrite hearts, confess our sins in the sacrament of penance, God forgets them all, pouring his healing mercy on us.

Empowered by his grace, we can then go forward to turn our series of sinful defeats into victories of virtue that God had planned out for us from all eternity.

Some of the most compelling stories of the saints are of those who led deeply sinful lives before God’s grace led them to wondrous conversions. Consider the lives of St. Paul and St. Augustine.

We might not be infamous sinners like these men were. But there’s no doubt that we all struggle every day with sin. And, on our own, we can never achieve the heavenly victory that is the desire of our hearts.

With the help of God’s grace, though, it’s always within our grasp no matter how many times we’ve lost in this lifelong struggle in the past.
 

(Sean Gallagher is a columnist and reporter for The Criterion.) †