11.18.

24 – Learning Outcomes
“Giving the Best of Yourself” - Chapters 1 to 3

1. The Catholic Church believes that engaging in sports moves us beyond ourselves and our
own self interests in a healthy way. Sports trains the spirit in sacrifice, fosters loyalty in
interpersonal relations, friendship, and respect for rules. The Church seeks to create a
vision for sports that is grounded in a Christian understanding of the human person, a just
society and the person of Jesus Christ. Christianity can provide added values and attributes
that gives fullness to the sporting experience.
2. Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, intended to create a global
educational phenomenon that sought to teach peace, democracy, international
understanding and human perfection through sports. The original aim was not only athletic
but a celebration of human nobility and beauty. The Olympic motto, “citius, altius, fortius”
(faster, higher, stronger) was borrowed from a Dominican Catholic priest and refers not
only to physical excellence but human excellence in general. Pierre de Coubertin viewed the
Olympic ideal as a religion of athletics, (a “religio athletae”). This does not mean that he
viewed sports as a modern religion but rather used sports to symbolizes the moral values,
principles and virtue of sport, practiced and pursued by athletes.
3. While there is no single definition of sport, there are five general features that can ascribed
to sports. (1) Sports are associated with the motion of the human body; (2) it is a ludic
activity. This means that sport is not an activity in order to achieve an external purpose but
has purpose in itself; (3) Sports are subject certain set of codified and agreed upon rules
that regulate the activity; (4) There is a competitive character where the participant
competes against others or themselves; (5) There is an equality of opportunities where two
or more competitors have starting conditions that are relatively equal. These conditions
create the following definition of sport: Bodily motions of collective agents who, in
accordance with particular rules of the game, effect ludic performances, which on the
condition of equal opportunity, are compared to similar performance of others in a
competition.
4. There is a structural system in modern sport that depends on external support from
voluntary workers, financial donors, benefactors, fans, customers and others who make
sports known and attractive to external contributors. The sports system has to care for the
attractiveness of the sport in a way that encourages the additional support and investments
necessary for its continued operation. In this sense, sport has become a type of product
that has to satisfy interests of various people and groups. This structural dependence on
external contributors creates room for risks and dangers
5. Sports remind us that being free and having freedom comes with responsibility. Freedom
does not mean doing whatever one wants to do, without limitation. Success in sports is only
achieved through making disciplined and deliberate choices that are directed toward a goal.
 Sports also reminds us that perseverance, discipline, temperance and a strong character are
required to overcome adversity are all necessary to achieve long-term goals and
commitments. Sports also bears witness to the fact that there are rules that must be
followed but these rules also foster creativity, strategy and tactics. Freedom from one thing
can allow freedom for something else.
6. Harmony and balance, in the context of sport, refers to the overall development of the
human person that leads to happiness. Physical exercise helps to restore a healthy balance
of both mind and body. Sports is one of the most effective ways of helping people to
develop holistically in a way that addresses one’s physical, social, physical and psychological
formation. Paradoxically, it is through engaging in physical activity that we can grow and
become aware of one’s spiritual needs. Excessive reliance on commercialization and
technology in sport, detached from ethics run the risk of commoditizing the human person
and doing harm to the holistic dignity of the human person that is comprise of both physical
and spiritual dimensions (i.e.: Both Body and Soul).
7. St Thomas Aquinas points out that courage is the mean between cowardice and
recklessness. In sports and spirituality, doing something courageous is always related to
morality. This is because to be courageous means doing what is right rather than what is
expedient or easy. Being courageous is a personal choice that is difficult to teach or train. In
sports, courage is often most clearly evidenced in how one faces defeat or perseveres in the
face of adversity. The same is true in the spiritual life.
8. Equality of rights for every person does not mean or imply uniformity or similarity. There is
a multiplicity of and diversity of human life with respect, to age, sex, culture and traditions.
Athletes with different physical abilities should not be judged or evaluated the same. This is
why there are separate athletic categories based on age, sex and weight class, for example.
There are also variations in talents, abilities and physical limitations. The Special Olympics
and Paralympics were established to provide this kind of fair and equal opportunity for
competition and success. All humans are created with the same dignity and respect and are
equal in the eyes of God. But this does not mean all have equal athletic abilities and talents.
9. Solidarity in sports refers to the unity that can develop among teammates who strive
toward the same goal. In a Christian context, this notion of solidarity and the Common
Good extends to all people. For the Christian athlete, this can imply a responsibility to even
help opponents when they are down. Athletes at the top of their game have an unavoidable
social responsibility and need to be aware of their role to act as social forces of unity or
division. Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis have encouraged athletes to serve as
example to others, place their talents at the service of others and to use their personal
examples to foster inclusion, unity and to heal misunderstandings. Sports goes hand in hand
with solidarity because it has the unique capacity to promote unity and understanding
among people, races, religions and cultures.
10. Sports can expose the tension between strength and weakness – both of which are a part of
the human condition. Sports are a way to live out specific talents and at the same time
recall one’s limitations where success is never guaranteed. The intrinsic relation between
personal freedom and the acceptance of rules shows that the human person is situated
with a community with others. Only focusing on one’s personal strength might suggest
complete self-sufficiency (c.v.: Pelagianism) where one can make up their own rules.
Similarly, an over-emphasis on the community may lead to an underestimation of one’s
personal dignity and responsibility. This tension between strength and weakness helps one
to understand that the human person is a single, unified reality comprised of both body and
soul that is also an individual that lives within a community of others.
11. Human beings discover the deepest truth of who they are in God’s image and likeness.
While sports embody the pursuit of a certain kind of happiness, it is also true that the
human person was created for a happiness that is even greater and more enduring. This
greater happiness is realized through God’s grace which is not contrary or counter to what
is human but rather perfects one’s human nature. What Christ was by nature (fully divine
and human), we can approach through grace. One of the most important ways we
experience God’s grace is through His mercy and forgiveness. Even when we make mistakes
and sin, God is always patient, offers forgiveness and second chances. The same is
experienced in sports as we atone for errors, continue to strive for perfection and seek to
restore relationships that have been damaged through our behaviors both inside and
outside the game.