Daniel del Castillo González
Training for heaven doesn't just mean being a good Christian and striving for holiness; it also includes taking care of your body and mind. And of course, you should also have fun.
In his letters, St. Paul often drew a parallel between athletic competition and the spiritual life. He reminded believers that, just as athletes compete according to the rules, they also train with discipline and self-control.
Although sports and holiness may seem worlds apart, they are in fact connected, and if heaven is the goal, exercising is one of the paths to it.
P. MELCHOR SÁNCHEZ DE TOCA
Dicastery for the Causes of Saints
At first glance, they seem to be two completely separate worlds. It's as if spiritual teachers and directors were somewhat reluctant to embrace sports.
It was frowned upon for a priest to play with the children in the courtyard. In fact, even as late as the time of St. Pius X, priests were forbidden to ride bicycles because it was thought to be unseemly to see a priest pedaling and sweating. Thankfully, these attitudes eventually began to disappear. Saint John Bosco challenged such conventions by introducing the revolutionary idea that his Salesian collaborators should play with the boys in the courtyard.
Training for Heaven, the book written by Melchor Sánchez de Toca, a relator for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, explores the connection between sports and sainthood.
Sports helped these saints prepare for the hardships they would later have to endure.
This was the case with St. Francis Xavier, who was a high jump champion at the University of Paris. The book credits sport with helping prepare him for his ten years of missionary work.
There are also more contemporary saints who, long before their canonization, became known for balancing their pastoral work with their passion for sports.
P. MELCHOR SÁNCHEZ DE TOCA
Dicastery for the Causes of Saints
Saint John Paul II did just that: he went skiing. At the time, it seemed almost unthinkable. Yet he felt he had no reason to give up the connection with nature that had been so important in his life—especially with the mountains as his school of life—and so he always tried to do it discreetly to avoid causing problems for the authorities as well, for security reasons. On Tuesdays, he would slip away with Cardinal Stanislaw and a ski instructor who helped him a great deal to hit some slopes near Rome. For him, it was important to reconnect with nature in the mountains. When he could no longer ski, he would go to the Aosta Valley in the summer to take walks and go on mountain hikes.
Nuns are no exception when it comes to sports. Saint Teresa of the Andes wasn't just a Carmelite, she was an accomplished equestrian and enjoyed swimming in the Pacific Ocean.
But the champion is Gino Bartali, a Servant of God who reached the podium several times and went on to save the lives of more than 800 people.
P. MELCHOR SÁNCHEZ DE TOCA
Dicastery for the Causes of Saints
The great Gino Bartali won the Giro d'Italia twice and claimed victory in the Tour de France on two occasions.
In Italy, he is a legendary sports figure. He also played a significant role during World War II by secretly carrying messages to help save Jewish families from deportation. He concealed the papers inside his bicycle frame, and his reputation was such that he was never stopped or searched.
Sport matters to the saints because it is part of what it means to be human. And in the Church, nothing that is truly human is excluded.
