Sports and Jesus!

Bulletin Column for February 2, 2020

            This weekend, the roads will be empty and the bars will be full, because most of America will be watching the most-watched sporting event of the year: the Super Bowl! I will be among them, watching with disinterest since my team was slaughtered early on in the playoffs (sigh).

            But to one who avidly loves to watch and play sports, athletics has long been connected to our Catholic Faith – both as a way to grow in holiness, and as an obstacle to holiness. Today, let’s take a look at both to see how sports can be used for our spiritual good, and not for our spiritual harm!

            St. Paul himself uses sports analogies. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul writes: “Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” Thus, sports are an analogy for the “race” of faith. As athletes are disciplined, so must a Christian be disciplined.

            But Paul also recognizes that physical prowess, while good, is not as valuable as training in holiness. In 1 Timothy 4, he instructs Timothy, “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” I remember talking with a high school senior who wanted to know if it was wrong to work out for three hours per day. I just simply asked him how much time he spent on his spiritual life, since the body will be rotting in the ground in 100 years but his soul will live forever. He got the point!

            In the early Church, most Christians avoided sports because they were practiced in a way antithetical to their Christian values. Public sporting events in the ancient Roman Empire were often dedicated to pagan gods, and athletes competed in the nude (much to the horror of the early Christians!). Many of the public sporting events included violence, such as gladiatorial matches, which the Christians objected to; and at times these games included the death of Christians themselves.

            But the patron saint of sports comes from this time period! St. Sebastian was a Roman soldier from Milan who kept his Christianity secret, hoping to evangelize the army from within. When his faith was discovered, he was sentenced to death by being shot through with arrows (hence, patron saint of archery, which was considered a very popular sport in times past). Amazingly he survived the arrow attack, and after being nursed back to health, used his status as a soldier to gain access to the pagan emperor Diocletian. Sebastian publically denounced Diocletian’s lack of faith, and was subsequently beaten with clubs until he died. Because of his physical strength (not many people could withstand becoming a human pincushion!), he is considered the patron saint of sports.

            Later Christians embraced sports and games, as a pleasant diversion. St. Philip Neri enjoyed a good game of billiards, and St. John Bosco urged the boys in his school to “have as much fun as you want, but don’t sin” – telling them that sports will keep them out of trouble! St. Hubert enjoyed the sport of hunting (perhaps a bit too much – he famously was preparing to shoot at a buck, but stopped because he saw a vision of the Crucified Lord between his antlers…mainly to reproach him for hunting on Sunday!).

            And then came Pope John Paul II. He was a sportsman extraordinaire, loving to ski and kayak (in fact, as Pope he frequently snuck out of the Vatican in the early morning to have a day of skiing in the mountains of Italy…and his Swiss Guard was always shocked when he would return late at night – they had no idea that the Pope was out of the Vatican!). He said many positive things about sports, including the following quotes:

            Playing sports has become very important today, since it can encourage young people to develop important values such as loyalty, perseverance, friendship, sharing and solidarity. Sports contribute to the love of life, teaches sacrifice, respect and responsibility, leading to the full development of every human person.

            Sport is an activity that involves more than the movement of the body; it demands the use of intelligence and the disciplining of the will. It reveals, in other words, the wonderful structure of the human person created by God as a spiritual being, a unity of body and spirit. If sport is reduced to the cult of the human body, forgetting the primacy of the spirit, or if it were to hinder your moral and intellectual development, or result in you serving less than noble aims, then it would lose its true significance and, in the long run, it would become even harmful to your healthy full growth as human persons. You are true athletes when you prepare yourselves not only by training your bodies but also by constantly engaging the spiritual dimensions of your person for a harmonious development of all your talents.

            John Paul II teaches us a healthy balance – we must enjoy sports, not just for pure pleasure, but because of the virtues that it forms in us: perseverance, teamwork, discipline. At the same time, we must not make sports into “a cult” (which is quite common today!).

            My college baseball coach, on the first day of practice, said something I’ll never forget. He started off his speech by saying, “Gentlemen, nothing in sports is eternal.” That helped keep everything in perspective. It’s a great thing to play sports, but it must be balanced by the realization that it really is just a game, and that there are more important things in life.

            So whether your team wins or loses this Sunday, enjoy the camaraderie and the joy of competition. Nothing like a good football game to bring America together!