A Race In Which Everyone Can Be A Winner

I found myself re-reading Blessed Pope John Paul II’s homily of October 2000 on the Jubilee of Athletes as the creative and lavish opening ceremony to the Olympic Games in Sochi began. He writes,

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it!” (1 Cor 9: 24).

“In Corinth, where Paul had brought the message of the Gospel, there was a very important stadium where the “Isthmian Games” were held. It was appropriate, then, for Paul to refer to athletic contests in order to spur the Christians of that city to push themselves to the utmost in the “race” of life.

In the stadium races, he says, everyone runs, even if only one is the winner: you too run…. With this metaphor of healthy athletic competition, he highlights the value of life, comparing it to a race not only for an earthly, passing goal, but for an eternal one. A race in which not just one person, but everyone can be a winner.”

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20001029_jubilee-sport_en.html

Life is indeed a race and faith is the great prize. You only really lose if you don’t race. At least that’s what I’d like to say to the thousands of athletes who know intimately the value of sacrifice and the joy of just being in the race. Our body helps prepare our soul in knowledge. Our muscles move us forward and our spirit moves us upward. We all know right down to our striated fast twitch cells that we must race. We are born for the heavenly Olympiad.

St. Sebastian, patron of athletes, and Blessed Pope John Paul II, pray for all who race the great race as you did!