Word to the Wise
Friday, September 12, 2014 - Friday in the 23th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27 and Luke 6:39-42]"Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." [1 Cor.]
Every couple of years, either the Winter or Spring Olympics appear on our TV screens and the media go into every aspect of every sport featured! Yet we owe it all to the Greeks who loved sport spectaculars and built stadiums wherever they founded a colony. [They were into theater, too!] The Romans continued that practice as well. It appears that St. Paul was a sports fan. He mentions track and boxing in his metaphor for discipline in Christian life. There are no big "trophies" or "medals" mentioned, only the "crown" of laurel leaves that went to the victor, which would eventually dry out and crumble. The crown of Christian life is "imperishable" and at least worthy of the discipline needed to gain it. In 2 Timothy 4, the image will appear again when he says, "I have fought the good fight; I have run the race; I have kept the faith."
A Christian life requires intentional discipline if it is to be lived well. Jesus challenges his disciples to pick up a cross and follow him Paul appeals to an example of discipline that the Corinthians would have known well. St. Augustine is quoted as saying: "Pray as if everything depends on God; work as if everything depends on you!" Discipline of the kind that healthy Christian life demands is not designed to destroy the body, as if the body were of no use! It means staying in good shape physically and spiritually. If the body is the "temple of the spirit," one needs a good preventive maintenance plan! AMEN