What is with all this Olympic stuff that is all over the news lately. Do you care about them, are they interesting, why do you like them or dislike them? After all, its just sports, and sports dont matter right.
This is the argument of some people and perhaps its easy to see why some are so turned off by sports. High salaries, games are played for a living, and lack of character are all reasons why some blacklist professional sports but I see it differently.
Pope Benedict XVI said, in regards to the Olympics, they are "a valued building block of peace and friendship between peoples and nations." Granted, we are not talking about the pro sports like the NFL, NBA, and MLB but you get the point. Where else can nations come together putting differences, beliefs, and even wars aside to cheer on their fellow Earth-mates as they perform super human feats.
Just think, these winter Olympians have trained every day for years to do what they do and what they do is so simple, they move on frozen water. Simple but they do it in so many different ways, on skates, on skis, snowboards, bobsleds, with sticks, with rocks, and all with near flawless grace and beauty. This is why we watch, perfection. Perfection is beautiful. We love to succeed, we love watching others succeed, we love watching perfection, we love to gaze upon beauty, we want to be perfect, we want to be beautiful. To accomplish this takes an incredible amount of work and it shows in the efforts of these men and women. Imagine training day in and day out to slide a rock down a large sheet of ice, that would be torture but we'll watch it for a couple days because we want to see perfection and beauty. Doing anything perfect looks beautiful and its most clear in the physical abilities of the human person.
The Olympics date back to the ancient Greeks who were leaders and trail blazers in education, philosophy and loved perfection and beauty. Philosophy means "the love of wisdom," so it is no small wonder that the high minded Greeks came up with such a spectacle as the Olympics.
We can also participate in the perfection and make our own lives a thing of beauty. St. Francis DeSales said "Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly." Each day we can strive for this as we participate in the (insert your name here) Olympics. Sounds pretty cheesy doesnt it? There is no gold medal after 4 years but there is a great reward after a lifetime of practicing to be your most perfect self.
We are told in scripture to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. The "perfect" scripture speaks of is not being a perfectionist or doing things better than everyone else. The real perfection is perfect love for one another and for God. As each day passes and we strive for this perfection people around us will recognize that beauty in us, the beauty that comes from God. Love in itself is perfection and we know God is love. This makes the living out of our faith naturally beautiful. Blessed Mother Theresa, the (pardon the description) wrinkly little old woman that everyone knows about, why? She was just a poor little woman who worked with the people who no one else would even look at. Maybe everyone knows about her for the same reason we tune in to the Olympics, we recognize beauty and we want our lives to be beautiful too. The funny thing is they already are......we just need a little practice.
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