Brotherhood and Mercy in the Football Pitch

Whenever brotherhood is mentioned, Mercy never misses. The two are highly synonymous, compatible and above all, inseparable. Br. WimVerschuren states that Working towards a more merciful and just world is done in many ways….. This sounds quite interesting and at the same time encouraging, and I fully agree with the statement. In my own research, many people from my country love football. We enjoy watching our favourite teams play with the hope that they win. Football is a source of livelihood to many people as they earn a lot of money from it. However, we often forget to look at the spiritual aspect this game, under the charism of mercy and brotherhood.

I remember in the year 2017, when our fellow brothers from the West part of Kenya (Mosocho, Oyugis and Sikri) formed a football team to play against the pupils of St. Vincent de Paul Boys’ primary school, Mosocho. The tournament was named after the blessed Br. Andreas van de Boer. Its objectives were to create awareness to the learners about the life of blessed br. Andreas; also to train them on the importance of teamwork among others. It was quite a unique moment for boys since the matches they were used to include; those between them and their teachers or friendly match with other institutions notwithstanding the inter-school ball games, which in many occasions are quite physical. But the friendliness of this tournament clearly portrayed the spirit mercy in action.

At the end of the tournament both teams emerged winners even albeit the young boys scored the brothers team 3 goals to 0. Nevertheless, our objectives were achieved. The winners were awarded a trophy known as Br. Andrea’s trophy. The boys were so amazed by the fact that brothers were so delighted at their victory; little did they understand the lesson behind it; sometimes in life you have to accept to lose that is mercy. Then learn from that fact in order to better your tomorrow. The boys were equally impressed by the manner in which the event was conducted.

One pupil asked me why we are called the brothers of Mercy, unfortunately I did not have the best answer to respond to his question, nonetheless, I referred him back to the match which had just ended, asked him some of the observation he made during the game, which he acknowledged the friendliness of the opponents, seeing brothers praying before and after the match, hugging each hugging each despite the lose and finally congratulating the boys’ team for their victory, having mention all those, at least I had something to tell him about his question, why were are called brothers of Mercy.

We are all invited to make use of every opportunity we get, to exercise mercy. It is quite a noble spirituality even though not always easy to exercise, nevertheless, where there is a will, there is a way, that is why our founder bishop Zwijsen was right to implore the spirit of the Lord to animate his congregation thoroughly... And off course “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy….”.