Editor's Note You just have to be there! By Darcy L. Fargo

March 19, 2025

“You spend all that money on travel and tickets, and you could see the game better if you watched it at home.”
I’ve heard some version of that more times than I can count. It’s 100 percent correct. With the close-up shots, variety of camera angles and replay, you can definitely see a football game better if you watch it on television.
So, why do my son and I spend so much time, energy and money traveling to football games?

Because it’s not just about the game.

There is absolutely nothing in the world like being in Acrisure Stadium – it’s still Heinz Field to me – when the giant screens at both ends of the stadium go black, and a heartbeat rhythm starts feeding through the sound system as “Renegade,” the song by Styx, begins. Almost everyone in the building – 60,000 people – jumps to their feet and starts cheering, yelling and waving their “Terrible towel,” a gold-colored towel associated with our beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s electric. It makes me feel like I’m part of something big and that I’m somehow connected to tens of thousands of strangers.

I thought of that last week as the vast majority of the people joined together in song during Mass in my small church, St. Mary’s in Brushton.

When it crossed my mind, I stopped singing. When I sing, I hear myself most.

My silence gave me an opportunity to hear the unique, varied and beautiful voices around me blending beautifully to become a singular beautiful song.

Just like when “Renegade” plays, it made me feel like I’m part of something big and that I’m somehow connected to both the people around me and, in a greater sense, with the rest of the Body of Christ, the Church.

Throughout the rest of that Mass, I felt that sense of community as all of us there worshipping our loving God moved in near unison with our movements, with our songs and with our prayers.

It’s an experience you can’t get watching it from home.