Lenten reflections from state basketball tourney

My former students Rev. Casey Pelzer (the ref) and Father Andy Upah (team chaplain) working the same game? That woke up their ol’ professor!

DES MOINES, Iowa — “Hey, Chuck!” said the text late Wednesday morning from Father Andy Upah. “Funny thing I have to share. I got moved in August to Bellevue (Iowa), so I’m the Chaplain at Marquette Catholic (high school) now. I’m at their state game and Casey Pelzer is the ref!”

If I hadn’t been in the middle of a helpful infusion of antibodies – boosting my immune system -- at Mission Cancer & Blood’s beautiful new facilities in southern Waukee, I’d have immediately reported into the basketball game happening downtown at Wells Fargo Arena.

You who are longtime readers know that Upah and Pelzer are favorite students of mine from our Buena Vista University years. Both shocked me and a lot of others from BVU when – after starting their careers in other fields – they both have become pastors. And in an example of reversing professor-student roles, both have become good friends and counselors to me – and a whole lot of others.

Rev. Casey Pelzer and Father Andy Upah. (Photo by Ben Applegate, a referee who is another Buena Vista University graduate).

Pelzer, 43, who is also now principal of the Atlantic Middle School, is in his 10^th year as pastor of his home church, Cumberland United Methodist, in the western Iowa town of 250.

Upah, also 43, who grew up in the Traer-Tama area in east central Iowa, was ordained a Catholic priest in 2018 and has served parishes and schools around the Archdiocese of Dubuque. This past August, as he mentioned in his text, he was reassigned from the Church of the Nativity in Dubuque to become pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Bellevue, St. Catherine Parish in tiny St. Catherine, St. Donatus Parish in little St. Donatus, Saints Peter & Paul Parish in little Springbrook, and is also officially “Pastoral Coordinator” for Marquette Catholic High School in Bellevue. His total headcount in those four parishes: 3,200.

I’m not going to repeat the fascinating stories of the religious awakenings and then pastoral preparation that both Upah and Pelzer have experienced. I did that in a story in Holy Week of 2022 – that was before my run on Substack. I wrote that story, with photos, on our website www.Offenburger.com and I ask that you please read it, or read it again, there. I think you’ll find it well worth your time in this current holy season, no matter what your own religious inclination is.

But one thing new that I’ve done in this week’s interaction with Pelzer and Upah is to give each an assignment – I still get to do that, right? – to give us all Lenten reflections that relate to basketball tourney time.

Upah wrote his Friday early evening from the Marquette Catholic High Defenders’ locker room at Wells Fargo Arena, where they prepared to play the Class 1A state championship game against the Madrid High Tigers. (Madrid, undefeated at 28-0, won the title 59-57, with Marquette Catholic finishing runner-up with a 27-2 season record.)

“In basketball, every season is oriented towards its end,” Father Upah began. “The goal of every team is always to win the state championship. You hope the athletes are training in the off-season, but then the regular season starts and the coaches puts the team through extra conditioning. When the games start, that’s the true test. Our coaches knew we had a good team so they scheduled some tougher games, bigger schools, like North Scott and Dubuque Senior, even though we are just a 1A school with 62 students in the whole high school. But these are bigger tests to get us ready for postseason. We work hard, we develop the tools we need, we grow in discipline, we get ready for the big moment of the championship.

“The Church has seasons, too. Ordinary Time is like the off-season, Lent is like regular season, you really test yourself by giving something up and adding in more prayer. With the disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, these are like tests that get us to the most important feast of the year, Holy Week and Easter. We prepare 40 days of Lent season and then celebrate the 50 days of Easter season. We work hard, we develop the tools we need, we grow in discipline, we get ready for the big moment of Easter.

“But even bigger than the season is our own life. We work hard, we develop the tools we need, we grow in discipline, we get ready for the big moment of our death.”

Rev. Pelzer sent his Lenten reflection later Friday evening, acknowledging he was “two hours late. So, dock my grade.” He began with a summary of what he is personally doing in this season: “I'm just trying to ‘do what I can’ to praise Him.”

He was referring in that summary to a remarkable reflection he’d written on Wednesday of championship week. Get this: for 527 consecutive weeks, Pelzer has awakened on Wednesdays about 5 a.m. for scripture reading, prayer, meditation and then writing a “Midweek Message” to his flock. This most recent one began with a quote from Mark 14:8a in the Bible: “She did what she could...” Then came his own reflection on that:

“Mary, sister to Martha and Lazarus, just poured expensive perfume all over Jesus’ head as an act of praise. It was estimated the quality and amount of perfume used on Jesus was worth at least a year’s wages. Many bystanders couldn't understand why she would do such a thing, and they began openly questioning her praise. It didn't make sense to them and yet Jesus received it, called it a beautiful thing, and said, ‘She did what she could...’

“If I could choose five words to be said about me when my time here is past, it would be this phrase, ‘He did what he could...’ I don’t get a lot of things right. My faith journey is often messy and inconsistent. Yet, I want the assurance that I did my best. Often, we miss opportunities to praise God because we underestimate what we can do in the moment. Whatever it is we're able to give seems too irrelevant, so why bother? We can easily be overcome with thoughts that we could never make a difference. What if, instead, we just did what we could more consistently, no matter how small and irrelevant it seems? Jesus would receive it and call it beautiful.

“Let’s shift our mindsets and hearts to be more consistently willing to just do what we can. Jesus didn’t compare Mary's level of praise to anyone else’s, so we shouldn’t either. Jesus knew she did what she could with what she had in that moment. Let’s pray to be more aware of doing what we can with what we have in the moments we’re given. It’s then that our praise will not only be received, but be called a beautiful thing.”

What a blessing it is, for this ol’ professor, to have students like Upah and Pelzer now teaching me.

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