One of the real highlights of my summer was watching the Olympics, especially as they overlapped in part with my vacation time at Rehoboth Beach.
I was particularly impressed with the phenomenal sportsmanship exhibited by so many. I loved seeing athletes from different countries hugging each other and offering sincere congratulations on their success.
I loved it when U.S. gymnasts Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, who were awarded the silver and bronze medals in the floor exercise, bowed to gold medal winner Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. They didn’t finish first, but their honoring of another athlete and her incredible performance inspired me to think about how well I appreciate and praise others who succeed on their own journeys.
I was also struck — as I am every Olympics — by not only the God-given abilities of these world-class athletes but also the dedication, commitment and drive to become the best they can be. They push themselves to the limit for years preparing for the competition, and they are winners whether they stand on the medal podium or not.
I am impressed by the strength of character of athletes who work for years to try to win an event that might be settled in less than one-tenth of a second. How disappointing that must be for those who worked so hard and find themselves just missing the podium?
One of our local stars, Phoebe Bacon from Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart and Little Flower School in Bethesda, finished fourth in the 200-meter backstroke race and missed the podium by an agonizing four one-hundredths of a second. I bet she’ll be back for another try in four years, spending countless hours honing her skills.
The dedication, commitment and success of the best athletes in the world inspire me to do better in my own commitment and dedication to the most important thing of all — my relationship with Jesus. I don’t think I lack commitment and dedication, but if I’m honest with myself, it’s probably not the Olympic-level effort it could be.
I can dedicate more time in prayer talking to Jesus. I can persevere in my own spiritual training and living my life as Jesus wants me to. It gets hard managing responsibilities and busy lives — all important — so we need to be extra disciplined to make time for the Lord.
I loved the success stories from the Olympics, the sportsmanship and the all-out effort from all the athletes. It also got me thinking about whether I could be more committed to my own prayer life, more dedicated to making sure it is a priority, more qualitative and not just quantitative in the prayers I say.
As we are now back to work and school and our lives get busier, how about setting a goal that by Halloween you would have accomplished something spiritually? It could be something you’ve never done before, or something you’re already doing but try to do it better and more often.
I suggest your goal be measurable and achievable. I remember a spiritual director telling me one time about how someone he was directing wanted to set a goal of reading the Bible an hour each day. The spiritual director encouraged this person to start with something smaller and more achievable so as not to get discouraged. His suggestion: Simply hold the Bible in your hands five minutes a day, make that a habit, and then build from there.
Maybe your goal for the next couple of months could be reading a chapter of the Bible every day. Maybe it’s spending 15 minutes in front of the Blessed Sacrament each week. Or making a commitment to go to church every Sunday.
Those are just some quick ideas of spiritual goals that are measurable and achievable. I’ll be joining you, and I hope we can all look back when we celebrate All Saints Day at what we’ve done and how our lives have changed because of the time we’ve spent with the Lord.
Our reward will be better than any gold medal, and it won’t be decided by a tenth of a second. It will be a deeper and strong relationship with our God who created us and loves us more than we can ever know.
“Every athlete exercises discipline in every way,” St. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. “They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.” (1 Corinthians 9:25)
(Msgr. John Enzler serves as the mission advocate of Catholic Charities of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and is a chaplain at his alma mater, St. John’s College High School in Washington. He writes the Faith in Action column for the archdiocese’s Catholic Standard and Spanish-language El Pregonero newspapers and websites.)
