athletes

VEE:  As the Olympics are on there is a big deal made over various athletes.  They can go higher, faster, and are stronger than anyone else.  They train for hours every day for weeks months and years.  They show us what humans can accomplish athletically when they put their minds to it and are celebrated for it.  The first place prize, the gold medal, is so sought after that people will even resort to cheating.

This applies to any sport as well.  Think of the famous basketball, baseball, football, and soccer players.  They are paid millions of dollars and admired because they can hit throw or kick a ball well, but all of that is physical not spiritual.  One may spend all that time training their body but what matters is the spiritual, especially for Catholics.  We are members of the Church Christ founded and to whom much is given much is expected.  We are to be top notch, the best of the best, not luke warm, second best, lazy, fence sitters.  We have to challenge each other to be better even when others don't want to hear it.  We arent perfect but we are to try our hardest to be and we have the saints to follow, the spiritual athletes that show us how.  If it  seems too hard its because its supposed to be.  Nothing in this life is easy.

DS:  The road to paradise is very narrow and Jesus says, "blessed are those who find it."  The athletes on display at the Olympics are the finished product of years of sacrifice and suffering.  These young men and women worked through toil and pain to make their bodies the machines they are today.  The same goes for the soul.  You can't just sit lazy doing absolutely nothing and be saved.  Jesus Christ says just because you cry "Lord, Lord" does not guarantee you paradise, but you must do the will of His Father in heaven.  What is this will?  It is walking that narrow road.  It is not paved but rocky.  It is not straight but twisted and steep and scary.  It isn't comfortable.  You will trip and fall. You will taste fear and anxiety, sadness and joy.  You will reach heights only to be brought low again.  The narrow road is the way of the Christian.  It is the way of Love Himself.  And Love demands sacrifice.  

"Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat.  How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life:   and few there are that find it!" (Matthew 7:13-14 douay-rheims)