Spiritual Fitness Through Cross Training

Yes, the amazing pun (intended!) in the title does have a lot of meaning. Most of us love sports, and the similarities between fighting to win in them and our fight to beat Satan in this world are many. A lot of athletes spend hours repeating the same movements, exercises, swings, shots, throws, runs, and more over and over again so as to make them second nature during the game. Whether by shooting free throws, swinging a bat in the batting cage, or running wind sprints, the goal is not to even think about the mechanics of these things while playing against an opponent. Shutting out the crowd in the stands so as not to let their noise affect your psyche is also a goal of athletes. If you let the opposing mob’s hollering get to you, you will most likely make the big mistake of not concentrating on whatever the goal is at hand – hitting the baseball, sinking the putt, or catching the football. No, the really great athletes shut out the world outside while they are competing. The same can be said in the spiritual realm for modern-day potential saints who love Jesus. True Catholics don’t pay any attention to the loud crowd out there telling us we’re stupid and to keep our religion to ourself. No, we shut them out and proclaim Jesus to the world, even if only by giving a “Jesus Loves You” to the checkout lady at the grocery store.

Getting Into Shape

Every physical sport requires suffering through exercise: lifting heavier and heavier weights, running for distance, wind sprints, sit ups, pull ups, and so on. The same is true in the spiritual life. God will send us heavier and heavier trials to see how we react to them; that is, if we incorporate His teachings in the Bible and ALSO through the teachings of His Church in undergoing them. For instance, if someone hits us or steals money from us, do we pray for that person and forgive him? Or do we demand our rights and carry a grudge against that person forever? Jesus’ example from the cross was to forgive that person and to pray for him. So many of us fail to imitate Christ in this regard. Our running/sit ups/pull ups in the spiritual life consist of reading scripture, receiving our “daily bread” (in other words, “the Eucharist”) at Mass as often as we can, going to confession often with a truly contrite heart for having offended almighty God, and doing good works in the name of Jesus. (He is the vine, we are only the branches, so we never, ever do these works “on our own.”) The more of these exercises we do in the spiritual life, the more in “God-shape” we will be. When it’s all over and Jesus calls us home, the devil hasn’t got a “prayer” to drag us to hell.

Baseball

I used to play a LOT of baseball as a kid. I had a huge poster of Babe Ruth in my bedroom, and I read and studied a LOT of baseball books. Nothing is quite so intimidating as going to the plate all alone and facing a pitcher with a wicked curve ball and a devilish fastball. In this spiritual analogy, God is sending you to the plate (facing the devil one-on-one) AFTER you have practiced a lot in the batting cage (prayer in church). But unlike the pitching machine, the demonic pitcher can brush you back with an inside fastball, and he can also hit you hard with his pitches. Everyone in the stands is watching you to see how you react and whether you can hit his fiery throws (trials in life sent by Satan to test you). In the spiritual life, Hebrews 12 talks about how the great cloud of witnesses is watching us and presumably praying for us and cheering us on, just like your parents and friends are doing in the baseball stadium. In other words, while feeling lonesome at the plate facing the evil pitcher will probably happen, you are never truly alone, either in baseball or in life’s struggles.

NOTHING is quite like hitting a home run and doing something in your life that is the true imitation of Christ (which is always the TOTAL opposite of what the devil expects you to do). This action is your spiritual home run! And the baseball analogy continues, because you HAVE to be on third base if you want to score and run to home plate. In the spiritual life, if you want to run home to heaven one day, you have to put yourself third – God first, others second, and yourself third. And when you score the winning run, you aren’t the only person who wins; the rest of the team does as well. In life, if you lead a Godly existence for Christ, you will by default pull others into heaven with you, too!

And we all remember “Morganna, the Kissing Bandit” from 1969 through 1999 running onto the ball field to kiss the players. This reminds me of the devil sending to men, out of the blue, a beautiful woman to tempt us when we are merely going about our business. Sadly, it usually succeeds every time!

Football

Football is a game I truly love to watch but hate to play. In high school, a guy knocked me unconscious for 10 minutes during a super-hot August “two-a-day” practice. I thought to myself when I woke up: “This isn’t really a lot of fun.”

In football, Jesus (not you!) is the quarterback calling the plays. So many of us like to call the plays and pull the trigger to make things happen. Only when we let Jesus call the plays of our lives through total surrender of our intellect and will to His holy will can we expect to win in life.

In this football analogy, the Pope is the head coach, and the offensive linemen are the priests and bishops blocking the devil’s assaults on us. WE, the laity, are the backs and the ends; and Jesus, the quarterback, either hands us or passes us the football (His teachings) in order to score a touchdown (salvation!). The demons are the defense, trying to stop us at all costs, hitting us hard so as either to either stop us from scoring, or, even worse, fumbling the football (losing the faith).

Our offensive line, the priests and bishops, can:

a) just lay down and let the devil tackle us easily;

b) kind of stand up and just get in the way of the demons, which helps a little, but not much;

c) aggressively attack the oncoming demonic rush through fasting, prayer, heart-felt JESUS sermons, hearing LOTS of confessions, presiding over MANY Masses, and by being personally holy.

Anything short of option c) makes it very hard for us lay halfbacks and ends to score a touchdown (get to heaven). What many of us laity fail to do, however, is to pray for our priests to be holy; criticizing them, which is the total opposite of “cross” training, is so much easier.

We’ve all seen the videos of some “fan” jumping onto the football field, doing his own thing and causing disruption to the game, only to be chased and knocked down by a huge player. This is analogous to Protestants going on Catholic websites, doing their own thing and accusing us Catholics of worshiping Mary, only to be knocked down by an expert Catholic apologist who explains what veneration is instead of worship.

Basketball

I love basketball. I used to spend hours just shooting baskets, playing in games, and watching games on TV. The agility of the athletes combined with their physicality make basketball different from just about any other sport.

In the spiritual life,  making a basket (imitating Christ perfectly) after being defended by someone bigger and taller and meaner than us (a demon) is like scoring a goal for God’s Kingdom here on earth. Sometimes we are close to the basket when we score (being near other Christians day-to-day), or we make a really tough 3-point shot from far away (being among atheists and non-believers day-to-day).  Scoring for God by doing His holy will among other Christians (close to the basket) is usually pretty easy; doing something holy for God among non-believers while they are hooting and hollering at you for being Christian isn’t so easy, but it can be done. Shooting long 3-pointers in life among those who hate you for being Catholic can become second nature to us, IF we practice a lot.

There is a fault most of us have called “human respect,” which is not evangelizing others because we are afraid of what they might say or think about us. In basketball, the analogy would be like not even playing because you are afraid that others will laugh at your puny efforts to dribble, shoot, and defend against others. But God expects you to play on His team, no matter how clumsy you start out. This example is like being called out of the stands by the coach to suit up with the New York Knicks or the San Antonio Spurs. You are NOT expected to just sit in the stands applauding for other Christians; YOU are expected to suit up and play for THE winning team, Team Jesus. God will see to it that you get the grace to learn how to play well, even though you may start out as the klutziest of klutzes! If you don’t suit up for God’s team, then you are automatically assigned to play for the other side, Team Satan. Choose wisely!

Golf

While playing golf, posture, breathing, vision, and smoothness of swing are all crucial to hitting the ball off of the tee successfully. Taking your eye off the ball or swinging “herky-jerky” style will ensure that your drive will either fall short or go into the rough, neither of which is conducive to a low score. In golf, the lower the score, the better. “Par” is when you have a perfect game and only swing the club as many times as the course has said you should swing to complete the game. A golf game includes 18 holes. So if the course owners say that each hole is a “par 3”, then 54 (18 x 3) would be a perfect score, or “par for the course.”

In the spiritual life, we also must pay attention to our breathing and vision and smoothness. God blew the breath of life into us when we were born, and we must always remember that the Holy Spirit is in charge of our breathing. One day, He will exit our bodies and we will quit breathing. We must never forget this, as so many people seem to do by their immoderate lifestyles.

Our vision must also be clear. Jesus said in Luke 10:23, “Blessed are the eyes which see what you see!” Through our eyes of faith, we KNOW that the Eucharist is really God, because Catholics walk by faith, not by sight. Seeing the world through the lens of faith in God changes everything from how we see money and sex to how we help the poor.

Smoothness is also important to us, as we should be on autopilot with our thoughts, words, and deeds. “Herky-jerky” Christians sometimes think about God, sometimes not. The true Catholic will have heavenly thoughts deeply embedded into his everyday life instead of sometimes being Godly and sometimes not. And that is par for the heavenly course!

Loving sports is not a sin, unless it becomes a substitute for God, especially on Sundays. Using sports analogies to equip our spiritual life can be very helpful in seeing life how it should be seen – through the eyes of God!