– Corrado Gnerre
[本段使用斜體] Your column talks about the Christian roots of the West. I am practically a sportsman and also a Catholic. Sports actually originated in the West. Well, I would like to know from you what relationship there is between Christianity and sports? And to what extent does Christianity enhance sports activity?
Dear reader, I am very pleased to answer you, because – I confess – I am also a sports lover and I highly recommend people to practice sports, especially young people. This is also to improve one’s spiritual life. It is no coincidence that Christianity immediately understood the importance of sports activity in the education of children.
Today, that intuition that animated the oratorios above all have proved to be truly prophetic. We live in a cultural context of evident relativism. What is known today is not only the frequency of transgression but above all the loss of the sense of transgression. To put it in a Christian way: you sin without worrying about sinning; the sense of sin has been lost.
Relativism is cancer; it is a very serious disease that undermines the whole man, his way of thinking and his behavior. Hence the duty to adopt therapies. The first is to rebuild awareness of one’s limit. But an exciting awareness. Man must not only rediscover himself limited, but he must also be passionate about this limit. He must understand that if the limit is a drama, it is not a tragedy. At the limit there is the answer, there is the response of the opening of the heart to the mystery, there is the religious answer.
In this reconstruction work, dear reader, sports play a very important role, especially for teenagers. I would even say an “irreplaceable” role. Sports was successful precisely because it is a metaphor for life. Its universality lies precisely in this. Sport recalls the profound sense of existence, with problems, anxieties, the desires for victory and fulfillment. Sport is important in this reconstruction work mainly for two reasons: First – Because it is based on the concept of “order.” Second – Because it is based on the concept of “competitive spirit.”
The element of order is not an option in sport, but it is substance. There is no sport without rules. They are not decided from time to time, at will, but must be objectively accepted. The athlete does not build his rules at the moment but must stick to what has been previously decided. Nothing in common with relativism and subjectivism! Nothing in common with the idea of a man who believes himself the foundation of everything! The man learns what life is from sports. Learns to accept the reality that imposes itself on him and cannot rebuild at will. Learn to accept a judgment above yourself.
Sports are based on the concept of “competition,” that is, of “race,” of “victory.” Sports is not a pure exhibition in itself. Real life, in fact, is not a show, but a challenge, a race. Dear reader, I must confess to you that the famous phrase by Pierre de Coubertin, “the important thing is not to win but to participate” sounds like a sort of betrayal of sports. Of course, it also depends on how you interpret it. If participation means the fact that no one should feel excluded and that participation is very important, a sentence of this type is also fine. But if you give it a maximalist interpretation, almost a debasement of the competitive tension, almost as if the competitive spirit is secondary, then it would become a betrayal of the essence of sports. On the other hand, life is like this: either you realize it or you fail, or you win or lose. Those who fail their lives can hardly console themselves for having only participated.
From this point of view, “sports” was very significant (of course I use the quotation marks for the non-historical use of the term) in the Middle Ages. The palii (competitions) and the carousels did not know the recognition of the second, the third … Only the first was awarded. The others, from the second onwards, were all last. The second could not prey on the third, because finishing second or finishing last was the same. This too was a metaphor for a mentality in which faith in Christian eschatology was strong. Life is made to conquer Heaven. Damned souls would prefer never to have been born than to console themselves for having at least participated in life!
It is no coincidence, therefore, that Christianity is the religion that best understood the value of sport for education. Because it is the religion that is mostly based on the concept of “competitive spirit.” I cannot dwell on issues for which more space would be needed, but it is enough to mention these points: a) The importance of personal freedom, Christianity rejects any form of fatalism. b) The importance that man deserves the divine life in himself (Grace). c) The otherworldly outcome that depends on the choices that man makes. These points demonstrate the “virile” and “competitive” essence of Christianity. On the other hand, for Christian “spiritual teachers” life is a “spiritual battle”, one must constantly struggle and prepare for personal sacrifice and responsibility. Saint Ignatius of Antioch was convinced that he would go down to the arena when he woke up in the morning.
In short, dear reader, Christianity does not tolerate compromises, just like sports.
(From La buona battaglia. Apologetica cattolica in domande e risposte, 2019©Chorabooks. Translated by Aurelio Porfiri. Used with permission of the publisher. All rights reserved)
Follow
