The Chicago Bears have had an exciting season, an impressive turnaround from the previous year, under new coach Ben Johnson.
Johnson’s mantra for the Bears has become a byword in Chicago. His slogan?
“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.”
The mantra captures a relentless drive to improve and not to settle for mediocre efforts.
Popular word on the streets is that he’s quoting St. Jerome, with sources from Hallow to Goodreads crediting the 4th-century theologian with this catchy phrase.
Here is one of the many sources attributing the saying to St. Jerome:
So what’s the real story? Is St. Jerome the Bears’ source of inspiration? Or could it be that a totally different Catholic figure has something to do with their success?
1Not St. Jerome, but a spiritual truth
The bummer news is that St. Jerome didn’t actually say that. Its first appearance in print was in 1897 — nearly 1,500 years after St. Jerome’s time.
It’s possible that his writings inspired the slogan, as he did write about fighting spiritual stagnation and constantly trying to improve. And we do love hearing him invoked. But those exact words? Nope.
Yet it’s significant that these words are misattributed to the saint, because they do reveal a great spiritual truth.
Whether in faith or in fitness — which have a lot in common — letting things slide never goes well.
A person trying to live a healthy, active lifestyle never feels they’re done trying. We would never say, “All right, I’m finished. I can stop working out and eating healthy now that I’ve reached peak health. I don’t need to try anymore.” Not at all. Health is a lifelong journey, and if we stop making progress, we start to backslide and undo our previous efforts.
Every word of that is just as true for the spiritual life as it is for the physical.
We want to be always growing, improving and becoming more like Christ — and this slogan is a great reminder.
2Perhaps a different Catholic figure?
Look, I don’t want to spread rumors or anything.
But does anyone else find it interesting that our new Pope is a lifelong Bears fan?
Anyone else catch that clip of him shouting, “Da Bears!” to Chicagoans waving a Bears shirt?
There have been plenty of jokes all over social media about prayers from up high helping the Bears this season.
Of course it’s a joke … but the Bears certainly have had a lot of improbable comebacks, haven’t they? You might even call them “Hail Mary” wins?
So could prayer be the real secret to their success?
Well, we know that prayer probably isn’t going to bring God to work miracles for a win seeing as how he has to be a fan of both sides, but it sure is fun to speculate. And it’s an incredibly exciting time for Chicago.
You can count on our watching the playoff game Sunday — rooting for the same team as Pope Leo. Just sayin’!