Our talent is God’s gift to us. What we do with it is our gift back to God. Each one of us is blessed with different talents and sports, is one of them. Witnessing Christ through sports definitely makes the world a better place. A sport (exercise) is to the body what reading is to the mind and a healthy body leads to a healthy mind which in turn leads to a healthy individual. It not only changes your body. It changes your mind, attitude and your mood.
Sports can be individual or as a team. As an individual one learns to respect, appreciate and value the other and when these qualities are exhibited, we witness Christ. As a team we learn to come together as a single unit with mutual respect for different teammates, plan collectively, listen and learn from each other, complement each other’s efforts and participate and compete with several other teams, exhibiting highest ethics and values, thereby setting an example to the other teams by witnessing Christ leading to harmony in a world that has a lot of acrimony.
A person is a unity of body, soul and spirit. This means that the embodied experiences of play and sport necessarily also involve and impact young people at the level of the soul and spirit. For this reason, they can be a part of the education of the whole person. Sport is also a way to introduce young people to the cardinal virtues of fortitude, temperance, prudence and justice and facilitate their growth in them.
Sport is an area of our society that promotes the meeting of humanity, and it can overcome socio-economic, racial, cultural and religious barriers. A sport is a space where Christians by witnessing Christ can seek to promote equality. By participating in sports, we can experience embodied existence in a simple and positive way. When sport is lived in a way that respects the dignity of the person and is free from economic, media and political exploitation, it can become a model for all areas of life.
God calls us to use our talents to our greatest potential for His glory, and that includes every time we step on the field too. It’s not about beating the opponent, but to realise it as an opportunity from God to reveal His glory!
Let’s witness Christ through sports and make the world a better place!
Leslie Noronha
St. Sebastian Sports Club