OSV STORY FOR JULY 14

SOCIETY

Spiritual exercises

The Catholic attitude toward sports and fitness is a winner

By Tracy Moran

Think we're not a society obsessed with our bodies? Our magazines, TV and movie screens are filled with solid-bodied sports heroes, supermodels and movie stars. And Americans spend millions each year trying to imitate them and achieve a more perfect physique.

Flick through the TV infomercials late at night and watch the proliferation of pseudo-celebrities shilling the latest abdominal or cardiovascular equipment. Or take note of the growing number of people who spend their lunch hours jogging, playing racquetball or "working out."

It's probably safe to say that people spend more time worrying about their physical shape than their spiritual shape. And the Catholic Church has been warning about such body-god mania for many years.

"It is sound to teach man to respect his body, but not to esteem the body more than is right," Pope Pius XII said some 40 years ago. "The most that is demanded is care of the body, strengthening of the body -- yes; but cult of the body, making a god of the body -- no."

Yet, with the Summer Olympics starting this week in Atlanta, it is good to be reminded that, despite our sometimes confused priorities -- placing physical attractiveness above inner beauty -- sports and physical activity should have a place in our lives.

In training

Pope John Paul II, himself an avid skier and hiker, has said that athletics "is a training ground of virtue, a school of inner balance and outer control, an introduction to more true and lasting conquests."

According to Robert Feeney, a physical-education teacher and author of a book on Catholic teaching on exercise and sports, "the Catholic Church is interested in exercise and sport because the human body is, as St. Paul states, 'the temple of the Holy Spirit.' The Church views the body as having its part to play, like the soul, in giving homage to God."

Feeney, too, is concerned that our society spends too much time cultivating the body and not nearly enough time in spiritual exercises.

"As far as spiritual fitness is concerned," he said, "one could suppose that if one bestowed equally serious care on the interior life as one does on exercise and sports, one would certainly be on the road to sanctity."

One traveler on that road is Mike Lambert, a rower who tried out for the Olympics last month. For 10 years, since he was 13, Lambert has daily prayed for wisdom, humility and meekness.

Last fall, when he arrived at the Arco Olympic Training Center near San Diego, he stepped up his training -- physical and spiritual.

A rower, Lambert would work out three to four times a day. In between workouts, he had plenty of free time to reflect on his faith, and he began reading Thomas Merton, St. Teresa of Avila and Catholic singer-songwriter and author John Michael Talbot's "Meditations From Solitude."

Studying these contemplatives made the Georgia native "want to release everything that the world thinks is important."

He came to a greater appreciation for faith's central place in his life.

"Everything else is pretty secondary, almost like a satellite activity to my relationship with the Lord," he told Our Sunday Visitor recently. "I look for ways to be a Christian, to exercise my Christianity in all the things I do."

Lambert has learned to put his trust in God, realizing that "whatever he has planned for me is 10 times better than anything I could think of."

Although some athletes are defined by competition and see winning as their highest aspiration, Lambert takes a different view.

"It's fun to win," he said, "but it seems like the end of the world to others if they lose."

Like Lambert, athletes with their eyes on the imperishable wreath are usually able to keep competition in perspective.

Bobby Ross, head coach of the San Diego Chargers football team, knows this well.

"If their faith is true and deep," Ross said, "they're usually more even-keeled and can deal with the pressures of the game."

One of the ways Ross deals with the pressures of the game is to "simply keep God as a very important part of my life. And it's always that way," he added. "I don't just turn to him when I'm under pressure."

Ross, who has a great devotion to the Blessed Mother, said he strives to be fair, up-front and honest because "we have a righteous God."

Olympians and professional athletes aren't the only ones whose faith enhances their athletic pursuits.

According to Feeney, "sports and physical exercise can perfect the body as an instrument of the mind and help the mind in the search and communication of the truth."

In other words, a sound mind in a sound body.

That's an ideal put into practice at the Legionaries of Christ's Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in New Hampshire. The boys at this minor seminary participate in a number of sports, including ice hockey and soccer.

"The Legion realizes the importance of building a strong soul and a strong body," said Patrick Madrid, a Catholic evangelist whose son attends Immaculate Conception. "The Legionaries' regimen of sports prepares them for the arduous work ahead."

Exercise can be a key way to keep children healthy and to develop their character.

In addition, the family that plays and exercises together is itself a healthier family -- so says Debbie Brumley and Angela Peters, two California mothers who have found the challenges of family fitness to be spiritually rewarding.

Brumley and her four children joined Peters and her five for a hike up Cowles Mountain. At nearly 1,600 feet, it's the highest point in the city of San Diego. Although they had never made the climb, they gamely set out.

The 5-month-old, snug in a baby carrier, was strapped to Angela's chest. The other children -- ranging in age from nearly 3 to 12 -- helped one another when they felt tired.

"A quarter of the way up, I thought, 'What are we doing?' " Brumley recalled.

With serious hikers practically galloping past them, the mothers and children tried not to be discouraged, especially when one of the 5-year-olds sat down and refused to budge. She had grown tired and frustrated after slipping repeatedly on the dirt path.

"We told her about the dark night of the soul," Brumley said, chuckling.

The two women encouraged the kids with lessons from the Bible -- how Moses went on the mountain to talk to God -- and with metaphors -- in life, like on the mountain, one must overcome obstacles and struggle for a goal.

Eventually, the group reached the top, tired and sunburned, but successful in their quest.

As they paused to enjoy the view, Brumley realized it was noon, so the two mothers and their nine children gathered to say the Angelus -- truly, a Catholic joining of spiritual and physical exercise.

Christian contest

In the Catholic view, the summit of all exercise, the finish line, if you will, for all of the endeavors of our body, is holiness.

St. Paul often compared the spiritual life to an athletic contest, an endurance race up the mountain toward God.

In a memorable passage from his First Letter to the Corinthians, he urges Christians to train themselves with the same vigor and intensity as Olympic athletes, although urging them to remember that their prize, as Christians, is the imperishable crown of eternal life:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one" (1 Cor 9:24-25).

Moran writes from San Diego, Calif.

Copyright Our Sunday Visitor 1996; from 7-14-96 edition

HEADLINES FOR JULY 14

The spiritual lessons of athletics (editorial)

The Pope and the man who will tell his life story

At work with Gail Quinn

Welcoming the stranger

Coming out of 20th-century catacombs

Keeping the faith out of the workplace