"If we didn't have the struggle, we would never see the glory." - Mother Superior, The Mighty Macs
After the fourth time of seeing the movie, I've gotten used to seeing my college campus on the big screen. I'm used to the fact that the nuns at school are now celebrities, since their faces all over the set. And I've gotten used to the fact that my school pretty much changed the history of women's college basketball forever. But the truth is, I don't see the movie over and over again because I have a lot of school pride, or because I love basketball or even because I feel like a little celebrity every time my dorm building shows up on the screen. I honestly see it because of two people: Mother Superior and Sister Sunday.
If you've seen the movie, you know that Sister Sunday is in her final year of temporary vows and is considering leaving the convent. Within the first ten minutes of the movie, the best line is said (see above). Every single time, even though I know it's coming, I start to cry when I hear those words. I can't tell you, in all my years of discernment, how many times I've been told, there are going to be ups and downs but when we finally get to the end, only then will we see the glory. The line hit so close to home the first time, and still does every time I see the movie. And so, Sister Sunday, after being told by Mother Superior that she must stay and find a place to fulfill God's ministry through her, she stays and continues on with the profound lines throughout the movie.
In another scene, Sister Sunday and Coach Cathy Rush are discussing with another man (who does not know Sister Sunday is a religious) their significant others. Sister Sunday tells the man that her significant other is a carpenter, good with hands and works miracles. I still cannot stop laughing every time she says it; I've said that so many times about my boyfriend.
As I sat in the theater in the middle of all my nuns from home (seriously, the majority of the audience were nuns), the one sister who I sat next to and I were laughing and crying and laughing some more, all the while discussing every profound moment in the movie. Yet, since we walked in late, she had missed my favorite line. As we were leaving the theater, I told her what she missed and we shared a hug, something I always call a "heart embrace." My relationship with her said to me, no matter the amount of struggle, she'll always be there for me, because she knows what it means to struggle and want to give up.
Seeing the movie with my sisters from home was just enough to make me realize that each sister, no matter where they come from or where they've been, has been through a struggle of some sort and that religious life isn't easy. To quote a mighty mac herself, "Religious life is not poetry, it is the roughest type of prose." My sisters seem to understand that while it was hard for them during their discernment, it's even harder for me considering the society I am growing up in. The truth is though, they will be there to be the Mother Superior to my Sister Sunday struggles.
