Citius, Altius, Fortius : Olympics In Jesus' Times

The London games are still a couple of days away and the first medals are yet to be won but any Christian worth his salt would know that the fight for a podium finish is not a new one but one that is at least 2000 years old. 

Today , The Church celebrates the feast of  St. James (Apostle & Martyr). James was the brother of John, another apostle of Christ. Holy scriptures tell us in Mark 10:35-45  the story of how these two brothers filled with ambitions of wane glory approached the Lord requesting for a official position to the right & left of Christ, once the Lord would establish His Kingdom. Now in Olympic parlance, the winner is at the centre, the silver medal winner is to the right of the  Gold medal winner and the bronze medal winner to the left of the Gold winner. So effectively, these two assumed themselves to be the next best after Jesus and had probably begun romancing the idea of succeeding Christ and inheriting His kingdom. Obviously, they had no clue of what they were asking for. There is no point blaming these two, the other 10 apostles were no different. Though they did not demand positions or designations, they were blinded by jealousy and competitive spirit. They must have muttered amongst themselves “How dare these two ask of such a high favour from the Lord, do they think we are not as good as them or do they think we are dead?" Insecure at the thought of their other brothers taking prime positions in the kingdom (the reality of which they had no clue of) must have made their inner being writhe with avarice. Perhaps, the thought of losing a race, which never existed, was too much to bear. 

The good Lord knowing well what was going on in the feeble minds of the ten calls them and ends up giving them one of the most avoided teachings of Christianity today. Those who want to be first in heaven will have to come last here on Earth and those who want to be great in the Kingdom will have to become the least in this world. There is a paradox in here. Sure enough, Christianity is religion of many paradoxes. I mean where else do you get a God who out of sheer love for His creation, comes down to become man and dies for His people. Where else do we get a God, who not only takes our sins away but also forgives them all. He erases our sins and washes us white as snow. A God who saves us inspite of us.  This paradox was highlighted by 'TheWoman@thewell' in one of her blogs sometime ago. Makes a fine reading.

To the ambitious duo, the Lord asked them if they will drink the cup (of suffering) which is He was about to drink. Of course, still with only starry dreams in their eyes, they replied ‘yes’. Though they had no idea what they were saying ‘yes’ to, James & John ended up proving themselves as men of their word, though it was only James who attained physical martyrdom. Infact, all the disciples of Jesus (except Judas) came out victors as true disciples following their master’s footsteps, bearing their respective crosses and attaining heights of holiness not by might or power of their own but by sheer Grace which flowed directly from the Lord himself as His Spirit led them from one place to another in their ardent quest to make Him known, the One who had saved them, sent them. By the time they were done, the cravings of worldly success had left them and desire to be at a lofty position and be known as successful leaders was dead. All that was alive and glowing was a desire to meet their maker, their saviour, their All in All. To win Gold , Silver or Bronze meant nothing anymore, all that meant was to lose everything and gain Christ in return.

Citius, Altius, Fortius.....Let The Games Begin

......Because this one is all about The Games. The eyes of  the whole world have been on London as they put finishing touches to their preparations for hosting the XXXth Olympic Games. Starting this weekend, London will be the epicenter of all the sporting action as well as attention of sports lovers & scribes. This is the event, sportsmen & women numbering thousands, have been preparing for four years (some even more) to compete with each other to excel in what they do best. Their quest will be to be Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger, the Olympic motto), than the rest of their competitors and we hope they do it in true Olympic Spirit viz (loosely put) 'not to win but to take part'. For some, a medal in Olympics will ensure that their future is secured and for some others, if not anything else, it will ensure that they have a story to tell their grand children 50 years from now. Medal or no medal, the term Olympian will be suffixed to their names, an honour they will carry with great pride for the rest of their lives.

For years, our great nation has been sending contingents every four years in true Olympic Spirit ie 'to participate and not to win.' Since 1928, India have won only 18 medals in total and 11 of them have come in Hockey. 9 of those medals are Gold and and 8 of those Gold medals are again in Hockey. Just goes on to say how great a nation we were in Hockey. But it was in 1980 we last won the Hockey Gold and though our present team is the best we have produced in years it's not happening this time either, so lets not go there.(May be in 2016 but not this year). Having said that, it is being said that this is the best & the strongest contingent that we have ever sent to The Games. There is a serious hope of winning medals across various disciplines, be it Boxing, Tennis, Badminton, Shooting and even Archery. I believe this edition of Olympics is going to be a fruiful one for our nation. We will know in 3 about weeks how well they do for the nation and themselves.

And why is yours truly writing all this? Well sports have been my life long weakness (I mean besides a few other things ie) and I have grown up watching, reading and playing (not to mention dreaming) sports practically ever since I have been using my five senses. While sports cannot be compared with Mammon, yet there is something gripping about it which can lead some (like me) away from the Lord. Mind you, excess of anything is bad and can also go to the extend of being sinful. For some, it could be their daily peg of whiskey, for some their daily pack of cigarettes......For me one of the things (among a few) has always been sports. Growing up, I would never miss a World Cup, a wimbledon or a French Open, a Champinos Trophy or a Euro cup. I remember in the neighborhood I grew up, we used to play sports as per 'seasons'. If FIFA World or Euro cup was going on, we'd play football, if champions trophy was being played, our hockey sticks would be out and we would put on our tennis shoes during the time of grand slams. Of course, playing is essential and I would say, even critical to one's wholesome growth but not to the point of making it an obsession and for me it always bordered on that. I used to wake up at 3:30am to watch India-New Zealand test matches, stay awake past midnight so that I would not miss that important England-Germany football match. Of course, there were some pluses. One of which was I almost ended up becoming a sports encyclopedia. (Coz the Brain always retains what you are passionate about !). I knew all the records, all the scores and all the history-geography of sports persons, the important dates and venues etc etc etc.........................

And then I met the Lord and sure enough he started putting His finger on my sin areas and after He had begun His work on the 'big ones', He started working on the not so big ones, Sports being the biggest of those 'not so big ones'. By the Lord's Grace, there has been change. Slow yet a positive change. The stats are fading away from memory and the new stats are not getting recorded anywhere, almost as if the disk space is full. It no longer grips me anymore, though it still interests me....a bit. But truth be told, I have just forgotten who won the French Open 2 months ago and frankly, I do not care either. My prayer now is to just take the last figment of interest also out of me. I mean, why should I bother who won what and who lost when & where. These details just end becoming a part of history and with the passage of time, are confined to the archives and for all we know, after a longer period of time, may even be deleted from there as by then new sports persons would have arrived, new records made, even new rules established rendering old player/records/details just irrelevant. Yes, I will be watching it on TV this time also, but not at the expense of my prayer time or my scripture reading or of helping my children with the home work or giving them a bath etc.

I know that all said & done, in the final analysis, the only question worth asking and reflecting upon is "where lies the eternal destiny of my soul?" .....Is it with Jesus or is it without Him? I just cannot think of the second situation as an option. Whatever is not of Him must burn away and my soul must surge faster, higher, stronger to be united with its true lover.......... ie Jesus.

Tiki-Taka & Living In Community

Last week Spain won the European Soccer Championship for the second time in a row. Spain's run in the world of soccer has been nothing less than phenomenal. They entered last Euro, in 2008, as perennial under achievers not having won anything in the previous 44 years. Most of the decade & half till 2008, they entered most all tournaments with a baggage of the past. The burden of not having won anything worthwhile in the world of  football in spite of  being called favourites was just getting too much to bear. But they won that Euro 2008 and then again the world cup in 2010 and then again the Euro last week to make it a golden treble. The first team to win 3 most important tournaments in a row. In recent past, this Spanish team has hardly lost a game.To top it they hardly seem to be conceding any goals either. The game which Spaniards play has come to be known as tiki-taka. Short & clean passes made over and over to each other. On the outside, it looks like a simple strategy. Keep ball possession as much as possible by passing it around amongst your own players. So much so that at times they are able to pass it around without allowing the opposition to touch the ball for minutes together. But in practice, it is not easy and involves hours of practice during training. It's not simply passing but completing those passes, ie passing with precision. It involves focus and it requires depending your team mates, trusting them to receive a pass from a difficult angle, trusting them to bail you out of a tight spot. They compliment each other, they are almost perfect substitutes for each other and they enjoy each other's success. The beauty of this Spanish team is that you cannot pick one player as the greatest or as a star. When you look at them they just look like one body (if I may use the term) and not a group of players And I doubt, if they have been involved in any serious scandals in the recent past. And not for nothing they are the current world champions & double European champions. This is a bunch of guys who just love what they do and they do it best and they go about doing without making much noise. Of course, as always there are critics. Some of them call it boring. Well, its true. doing the right thing repeatedly can be boring to look at from outside. Popular culture always looks for glamour, flamboyance & attitude, even arrogance from performers. This Spanish team has proved that to succeed, none of this need be a raw material.

Now how does all this link to community living? Well, in more ways than one. 

A few are mentioned below...

• Just like football, Community life is a team 'game'. 
• Community living involves a lot of hard work and working together .
• It is a place where you do not necessarily need to have stars. (Best avoided, infact)
• Trust between members is of critical importance.
• 'Running off the ball' to bail another team member is taught, implemented & practiced in day to day living.
• Doing the right thing repeatedly, habitually. Both individually and as a group. (Our lives change when our habits change. Habits create character. Character is our destiny)
• Complimenting each other rather than competing with each other is promoted.
• Enjoying each others' successes (backing each other during their falls) as if it were my own personal success. For in a community set up, where people (are supposed to) live as one body, to divide success & failures into individual portions would be imply encouraging competition (besides other things).          
• My brother's success is my success and my brother's failure/loss is my failure/loss. 

  While the above is the ideal setting and not all the features may be seen at once in any community set up. As Christians, if we fix anything less than Christ as our ideal, it will only bring about our downfall. We must always be encouraged and move towards perfection and believe that 'tiki-taka' success is within the realms of possibility in community living as well.

Feast of The First Martyrs

"Eighty-six years I have served him, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"`

These were the words of St.Polycarp (Bishop, Martyr), when he was asked to renounce his faith in Jesus and accept the Roman emperor, Caesar as his God. This was around 155 AD, almost 18 centuries ago. The first two odd centuries after Christ were the most horrifyingly testing for Christians. Ironically, these were also the most fruitful in terms of the spread of Christendom across the world. This was the glorious time when many men & women, both young & old even young boys and girls freely accepted death as a reward for accepting & proclaiming Jesus as their Saviour. These were the times when anyone, in the roman empire who dared to worship anything or anyone other than the roman emperor was sentenced to death or at least put through torture most gruesome. For the Romans, their emperor was God of the whole empire and anyone doing otherwise was charged with treason and (perhaps also) blasphemy and if the accused did not change his stance, he was eventually sentenced to death, mostly in the form crucifixion. Crucifixion, though, was not the only manner in which they were punished. The Romans are of course known for their barbaric ways in the battlefield. Public torture of Christians was not uncommon. Being burnt alive at stake, made to lie on sharp nails, fed to the lions & other wild beasts, scourged (to the extend of their internal anatomy becoming visible as far as the veins & arteries), were all done with an intention to make a spectacle out of them for both the common man's entertainment as also to pass on a message to him - As to what lay for him, if he also chose Christ as his God. The Church celebrated feast in honour of the 1st Martyrs (those who were persecuted by Nero in 64 AD) two days ago on 30th June.^

However, Christian Martydom was different from other acts of valour as may have been recorded in secular history books. It was, in fact, indeed so and much more than that. "It was all this and more, nothing less than a mystic communion and conformation with One who died for our sins that he might raise us eternally unto a life of holiness and everlasting joy."* Obviously, St.Polycarp as also other Martyrs were not only very much aware of this divine truth but it will not be wrong to say that this truth was ingrained in their hearts so deep that paying with their lives for the eternal Kingdom which the Lord had promised them was just too small a price to pay. It was exactly the same as they had read in the Gospel parable on finding the pearl of great price (Mattew 13:45-46). No price could have been greater than the value of what they were getting in return. A place in Heaven, alongside their Saviour. An eternity with the Lord at the price of a few more years in this world. If one knows it's true ramifications, that's a deal too hard to resist, I say.  Also, Martyrdom need not be always be achieved in the barbaric and bloody form as most of the martyrs have received. Martyrdom essentially involves martyrdom of the soul. It actually consists in giving up one's all, most especially self will, and offering it up to the Lord as a living & pleasing sacrifice. It consists of willfully sacrificing one's sinful self (along with all the fleeting pleasures, inordinate affections) for the Lord. An act which originates from a burning love for Him which in turn is nothing but a love response to His burning and all consuming love for me. The precondition here is that it should be an act of love and not out of compulsion. For our Lord never forces a soul to do anything.

Today, living in 21st century, the sacrifice of those martyrs of the 1st & 2nd century is almost forgotten by Christians, be it laity or clergy. Today the price which those early Christians paid seems too high a price for us to pay. Make no mistake, that is exactly the price which the Lord had set. Nothing more, nothing less and nothing else.

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 Ps : ^ By definition, Polycarp's Martyrdom will not come under this feast. His example has been taken only to expound the heart of martyrs in general.

       * Taken from 'Early Christian Fathers' by Cyril C Richardson