By David Wilkinson
Digger Phelps, legendary coach and ESPN college basketball analyst, and I have never met. I doubt we ever will. But on Ash Wednesday I discovered Digger and I are related. We’re spiritual kin.
I had attended a meaningful Ash Wednesday service at a Baptist church in Richmond, Va. Back in my hotel room, I turned on the TV to catch up on college basketball tournaments around the country. There was Digger doing a halftime report at his ESPN sports desk. Like me, he was sporting the ashen mark of the cross on his forehead.
Even though he’s a Catholic Christian and coached at Notre Dame, I was still surprised. I couldn’t help but wonder if an accommodation to Digger’s commitment to this Ash Wednesday tradition is written into his ESPN contract. Minimally, it has to have led to some interesting conversations among his colleagues, not to mention a warning to ESPN’s make-up assistant to leave the smudge untouched.
It certainly prompted discussion on the sports blogosphere. Some were completely dumbfounded, posting questions like “What’s that X on Digger’s forehead? Did he have surgery or something?” Several posts responded that it was “a Catholic thing.” Others confessed they had never heard of Ash Wednesday or the symbol of the ashen mark of the cross on the forehead.
On several religion blogs, Digger’s smudge rekindled an age-old debate about whether wearing the mark of the cross on a believer’s forehead on Ash Wednesday is a meaningful symbol or an empty ritual. For some Christians, the ashen mark is a visual reminder of our shared mortality, our shared brokenness and sinfulness, and our shared hope in Jesus Christ. For others, the act seems to contradict Jesus’ warning about wearing our piety on our sleeves.
I thought about the words I had heard earlier that evening, reminding worshippers that we were joining millions of Christians around the world on this day who would step forward to feel the ash-blackened thumb or finger of a priest or minister press the two strokes of the cross against their foreheads while speaking the somber words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
In the television world, Digger seemed to be alone. I surfed a dozen or so channels and scanned the foreheads of sports broadcasters, news reporters and talk show hosts. I didn’t spot another smudged forehead. As I returned to one of the basketball games, I wondered how cool it would have been to see the mark of the cross on the foreheads of some of Digger’s broadcast colleagues — from Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal and other traditions — as a grand ecumenical witness to Christian faith and the unity found in Jesus.
In a world where sports stars regularly point a finger heavenward to give God a share of the credit for a touchdown or glibly thank God for bestowing victory on the winner, I, for one, found Digger’s mark refreshing.
Who knows? Maybe some fan watching a game at Buffalo Wild Wings on Wednesday night turned to friends at the table and asked about the smudge on Digger’s forehead. And just maybe the conversation at the table turned to the meaning of Ash Wednesday, the ashen mark of the cross and what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
So, thanks, Digger, for wearing the ashen smudge. I hope it led to some meaningful conversation and private introspection among sports fans across the country. And, whatever side of the meaningful-symbol-or-empty-ritual debate today’s Christians choose, may we remember the call of Jesus that should mark us all: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”