Spiritual Lessons From The Amazing St. Peter’s University Basketball Team
Surprise victories by the St. Peter’s Peacocks men’s basketball team over better-known, better-funded, more physically-imposing opponents have injected a needed ray of hope into a nation wearied by multiple crises. The spirit and grit of this team doesn’t surprise alumni like me of this “little university” on a noisy intersection in Jersey City, N.J. — a city that’s known its own cycles of blight and rebirth.
The St. Peter’s campus is one of asphalt, brick and steel with sturdy trees pushing through concrete sidewalks. The atmosphere encourages toughness, resilience. The university has been an anchor on John F. Kennedy Boulevard for 150 years, ever since Jesuit priests founded it to educate sons and daughters of largely European immigrants.
By the time I attended, the student body was comprised of the granddaughters and grandsons of immigrants. Our parents by and large earned their living doing tough labor. Today — as in my case — many St. Peter’s students are the first in their families to graduate from college. A significant portion of the current student body comes from the most recent wave of immigrant families.
Even the name of the university’s athletic facility— the “Run Baby Run Arena” — reflects the fact that St. Peter’s students always have known they must run harder and faster than their peers. The media has dubbed the Peacocks a “Cinderella” team. I prefer the moniker a friend gave to the team, and by extension the whole school: “The Little Engine That Could.”
St. Peter’s graduates have become significant figures in the fields of medicine, business, nursing, education, journalism and religion. I benefited from a superb writing program begun by the late James C. G. Conniff, a prolific non-fiction writer and St. Peter’s alumnus.
Over the decades, the university guarded its emphasis on the liberal arts as a way of forming compassionate, service-oriented graduates. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to study Latin, Greek, philosophy, theology, music and art, and to spend a semester at the Sorbonne in Paris — something I was able to do with the help of a literary scholarship from the university.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from our St. Peter’s education comes from its Jesuit tradition. The order’s founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, calls us to be “a person for others,” to seek the presence of God in every person, every experience.
The university motto, Ad majorem Dei gloriam (For the greater glory of God) reminds us that a well-paying job counts for little if our true goal is not working for the betterment of others.
No one knows how long the Peacocks’ tremendous run will last. They meet another formidable opponent Sunday afternoon. Still, there are both practical and spiritual takeaways from what this team already has accomplished.
Lesson Number 1: If there is some goal or aim we’ve been wanting to accomplish but feel it’s too hard, too high to even try, the example of the Peacocks tells us to think again. Likewise, if somewhere along the line we’ve been told we aren’t smart enough, talented enough, attractive enough, or rich enough, the lesson of the Peacocks is to think again.
I have a dream for the Peacock team members beyond this NCAA tournament. Of course, I’d like for them to go the whole distance. And I’m happy that lucrative endorsement opportunities are rolling their way. My hope, though, is that they will prove to be winners as well in the competition of compassion, in the marketplace of service.
May each player continue to model being “a person for others.” May that be our goal too. Ad majorem Dei gloriam.
