By Artur Suski, S.J.
St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians compares the spiritual life and its care to that of the body:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (1 Cor 9:24-27).
For an athlete to excel in his sport, he must put in countless hours of practice. Furthermore, perfecting techniques requires good practice, a practice that is properly supervised by someone who knows something about the sport; in other words, a coach. To achieve perfection in technique, an athlete needs to put in much effort, and with this also comes the temptation to not exercise. St. Paul keenly notices this tendency, and so he writes that self-discipline is the most important virtue – or attitude – in sports: the athlete knows his goal and he knows that he has to make sacrifices in order to reach it. He has to watch his diet; he has to go run even when he doesn’t feel like it; he cannot spend too much time with his friends because he must practice, etc. There are many athletes out there and they all want to win the race, and you must have something that the others do not have. Otherwise, why should you be the winner and not any of them?
