A Thought About the Olympics on This Sunday Feast of the Assumption

It's the Feast of the Assumption. This year it falls on a Sunday. Happy feast day, Blessed Mother!

As with all Sundays, it's the Lord's Day. As this Sunday incorporates the Feast of the Assumption, last Sunday included the final events of the Tokyo Olympics.

Did you watch any of the competitions? If so, I hope you weren't distracted or put off by some of the nonsense that was pushed by those covering the events or that even managed to creep into some events.

For example, that man who lifted weights in the women's competition: Clearly he wasn't qualified, given his pitiful performance. So pitiful was that performance that you have to wonder whether he was "planted" there to further the "LGBT or whatever other letters you want to add" agenda.

Think I'm off the ranch here? Before you roll your eyes, consider this:

When the big push was on to make "gay marriage" legal a number of years ago, I encountered the following:

During one of our nights attending the Met opera, we saw two extremely well-dressed men during intermission nuzzling each other, obviously calling attention to themselves. This had never happened before, nor did it happen since.

There were more similar incidents that same year in other venues (like where we spent some time on vacation). In all cases these occurred in the same time period when "gay marriage" was heavily promoted - and successfully legislated into existence. Tell me it wasn't all planned.

That's why I think this pitiful weight-lifter person (I'm not sure how he "self-identified") was in the Olympics. He wasn't there because of his athletic prowess. He was planted there to advance an agenda.

Frankly, I thought there would be more of this sort of nonsense. Since I didn't watch the Olympics 24/7, I don't now whether there was or not. I hope not.

Besides that, there was a good dose of political commentary from so so-called "conservative" sources that targeted certain athletes and events. I suppose these folks were trying to provide some counter-weight to various comments by some athletes and network commentators. One in particular singled out the US women's soccer team that lost to Canada and thereby failed to reach the gold medal that many thought they should have won. The team has certain members who are notorious for their promotion of certain more liberal (even libertine) agendas. But I thought too much was made of this. 

The reason it might have been too much (whether or not you agree with the counter-comments): The Olympics should be about the athletes - period. (Of course, there's a lot of money at stake, but let's not get caught up in that now.) Anything that distracts from the athletes has no place in the Olympics. At least that's my two cents.

While I'm not an athlete, I've known some serious ones. And because I do try to take care of my body, I have some appreciation for the effort it takes to rise to the level of an Olympian - both from my own experience (decidedly not at an Olympic level!) and from interactions with real athletes. Indeed, some of those athletes have been good enough to try to qualify for the Olympics. At least one of them did in fact participate.

You may also enjoy the Olympics and wish people would just let the athletes compete without all the added agenda-driven nonsense. But what connection does this have to Sunday?

The connection to Sunday, the Lord's Day, lies in understanding how the striving of athletes compares to the striving for spiritual growth. Both take time and effort and great discipline and persistence. You don't have to be an Olympian to get this. But it helps if you do some serious physical exercise.

Once you see this connection, you'll find that serious performance of physical exercise can feed serious practice of your spiritual exercises. When they work hand in glove, it's a beautiful thing.

It would be a shame if the nonsense, agendas and other distractions overwhelm future Olympics. Let's hope people come to their senses.

Meanwhile, we've got our Sunday. Whether you watched the Olympics or not, whether you spend any quality time taking care of your body (which you should, remembering it's a temple of the Holy Spirit), you can still get down to the serious practice of your spiritual life.

And when Sunday is done, you can keep it up the rest of the week.

Maybe the Olympics helped us to remember: Just as we don't just exercise bodies one or two days a week, so too we don't just exercise our souls one or two days a week. It's a worthwhile lesson to learn.

Happy Sunday