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Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Pages: Pope John Paul II talks about sports in homily
By John Pages
Match Point
IN HIGH school, Karol Josef Wojtyla played soccer as a goalkeeper. A friend remembers entering the Wojtyla’s apartment and finding father and son playing soccer with a ball made of rags.
Karol first learned to ski as a boy. He discovered the mountains literally step by step as he and his friends climbed the slopes in the days before ski lifts. In winter, there was skating on the Skawa, where the boys swam in summer.
He was an outdoorsman. He loved to take students hiking, skiing, camping and canoeing on the hills of Poland. He took off his collar and told the youth to call him “uncle.” Why? Then it was illegal for priests to sponsor such outings under communism.
“Fr. Karol,” as he was fondly called, was on a kayaking trip in 1958 when he was named an auxiliary bishop of Krakow at 38. He was the youngest bishop in Poland’s history.
His indefatigable physical prowess slowed when he had two near misses with mortality in his youth. He was hit once by a streetcar and again by a truck in 1944 while a college student.
The injuries left the otherwise robust man – 5-foot-10.5 inches and 175 pounds in his prime – with a slight stoop to his shoulders, which is particularly noticeable when he is tired.
Pope John Paul II embraced sports.
He played sports.
He watched sports.
He respected the power of sports. (In August last year, he created a “sports department” in the Vatican to spread the good news through sweat and athleticism.)
Best of all, he preached sports.
Let’s go back to Oct. 29, 2000. The venue is Rome’s massive Olympic Stadium. Thousands of athletes around the world are gathered. The occasion? The Jubilee of Sports celebration.
The Pope enjoyed every minute. He watched a wheelchair race between disabled athletes and a 100-meter dash of Junior runners. As finale, a soccer match ensued between the national Italian team and a squad of players from other countries who compete in Italy. The game ended in a scoreless draw.
Before all the action, though, the Pope held mass.
At the beginning, five young people, carrying torches representing the world’s continents, lit an Olympic-style flame, as five children placed flowers in front of the altar and five doves were released as a sign of peace.
In his sermon, which he preached in Italian, the Holy Father expressed these words. Here are excerpts of that historic homily.
“It is a fitting occasion to give thanks to God for the gift of sport, in which the human person exercises his body, intellect and will, recognizing these abilities as so many gifts of his Creator.
“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.
“Those involved in sports throughout the world have a great responsibility. They are called to make sports an opportunity for meeting and dialogue, over and above every barrier of language, race or culture.
“Sports, in fact, can make an effective contribution to peaceful understanding between peoples and to establishing the new civilization of love.
“Sports contribute to the love of life, teaches sacrifice, respect and responsibility, leading to the full development of every human person.
“At the recent Olympic Games in Sydney, we admired the feats of the great athletes, who sacrificed themselves for years, day after day, to achieve those results.
“This is the logic of sport, especially Olympic sports. It is also the logic of life: Without sacrifices, important results are not obtained, or even genuine satisfaction.
“Every Christian is called to become a strong athlete of Christ, that is, a faithful and courageous witness to his Gospel. But to succeed in this, he must persevere in prayer, be trained in virtue and follow the divine Master in everything.
“He, in fact, is God’s true athlete: Christ is the “more powerful” man, who for our sake confronted and defeated the “opponent,” Satan, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, thus inaugurating the kingdom of God. He teaches us that, to enter into glory, we must undergo suffering. He has gone before us on this path so that we might follow in his footsteps.
“Lord Jesus Christ, help these athletes to be your friends and witnesses to your love. Help them to put the same effort into personal asceticism that they do into sports; help them to achieve a harmonious and cohesive unity of body and soul.
“May they be sound models to imitate for all who admire them. Help them always to be athletes of the spirit, to win your inestimable prize: an imperishable crown that lasts forever.”
Then as in now, the Holy Father said, “Amen.”
(john@playhouse.edu.ph)
(April 5, 2005 issue)
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