Africa-Press – Uganda. Medal winners at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, Joshua Cheptegei, Peruth Chemutai, and Jacob Kiplimo, have joined the ranks of Uganda’s heroes and role models.
We have often seen sportsmen/women publicly professing their faith, in the stadium; raising a question whether it is the right forum. The answer is yes. “Whatever you do, work heartily, for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23).
The Church appreciates sport as a gift from God. It speaks to our greater search for ultimate meaning, and promotes human freedom and creativity, as well as openness to the experience of divine existence.
God-within-us is epitomised in a state of harmonious union of body and mind, wherein the two work together effortlessly. Sport winners, hence, project what humans were truly created to be (Luke 21:19).
An attitude of redemption is present in sport when the primacy of the dignity of the person is respected and sport serves the human person in his or her integral development. “Giving the best of yourself in sports is also a call to aspire to holiness…
Engaging in sports, in fact, rouses us to go beyond ourselves and our own self interests in a healthy way; it trains the spirit in sacrifice and, if it is organised well, it fosters loyalty in interpersonal relations, friendship, and respect for rules.” Says Pope Francis (“Giving the best of yourself” 2018).
Beauty comes from God, and therefore its appreciation is built into us as his beloved creatures (Genesis 1:31). Sport has the potential to remind us that beauty is one of the ways we can encounter God.
It is also a phenomenon of civilisation that fully resides in contemporary culture and permeates the styles and choices of many people’s lives. For this reason, the Church has been a sponsor of the beautiful in art, music and other areas of human activity throughout its history.
The Church’s engagement with sports takes the form of a varied and widespread pastoral presence inspired by her interest in the human person. St. Paul used sports metaphors to explain the Christian life.
“I have fought to the end the good fight, finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7). He helps to understand the relationship between giving our very best in sports and in living the Christian faith, in every aspect of our lives. The effort to be successful will inspire Christians, worshippers of other religions, agnostics and even atheists.
Team sports and the presence of spectators reveal the relation between individuals and the community. It means to reject every form of selfishness and isolation.
It is an opportunity to encounter and be with others, to help one another, to compete in mutual esteem and to grow in brotherhood. Team sport also means respect for the multiplicity and diversity of human life with respect to sex, age, cultural and social backgrounds or traditions.
The Church has actively promoted the development of sport itself through organised and structured forms. As youth chaplain in Turin, St. John Bosco (1815-1888) pioneered the importance of sport for the holistic development of the personality of young people.
In 2004, John Paul II created the Church and Sport office, emphasizing the building of a more humane, peaceful and just society, as well as evangelisation.
The Church has insisted that a courageous act is always related to morality. This is because, to be courageous requires that we do the right thing, the good, rather than what is most expedient, or easy.
She feels co-responsible for safeguarding sport from dishonesty, drugs, manipulations, commercial abuse, danger of permanent injury, death and substituting it for a religion.
Christian sportsmen/women have a guaranteed audience to present themselves as role models of the gospel.
