"Faster, Higher, Stronger—Together"

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Kigs 4:42-44; Eph 4:1-6; Jn 6:1-15

July 27, 2024

Shrine of the Little Flower

Photo by Luca Dugaro on Unsplash

Last evening, many watched the impressive Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris with representatives of the nearly eleven thousand athletes from two-hundred and six national teams. The first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 in Athens, Greece, the life’s work of a visionary educator from Paris named Pierre de Coubertin, the Father of the Modern Olympics. Coubertin’s educational philosophy envisioned sport as a way to promote peace and understanding across cultures and even prevent war. Coubertin’s vision is expressed in the official Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger—Together” coined by his friend Father Henri Didon, OP, a French Dominican priest and advocate of youth sports.[1]

A little later, Coubertin adopted an Olympic Creed from a sermon given by the Episcopalian bishop of Pennsylvania, Ethelbert Talbot, in St. Paul’s Cathedral at the Lambeth Conference before the 1908 Olympic Games in London, saying: “The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part, for the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”[2] You see the Olympic Creed in the most famous symbol of the Olympics, designed by Coubertin, the five interconnected rings representing “the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games.”[3]

Some biblical scholars even argue St. Paul may have attended the Olympic games as a missionary traveling through Greece.[4] “I, [Paul], an [Olympian] for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph 4:1-3).

In a world, nation, city, church, rife with rivalry, competition, and war, is peace and unity possible today? In the Incarnation of Christ, Heaven entered the Olympics. In sending his Son, Jesus, God entered the world arena, became a runner in the human race, a member of our team, taking part in our struggle.

A large crowd comes out to see the amazing signs and feats of strength Jesus was performing. Across the Sea of Galilee, up on the mountain, Jesus does the impossible, breaks every record by taking five loaves and two fish to feed a multitude, more than they could eat. “When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world’” (Jn 6:14). The people come to carry him off and make him king, crown him with a laurel wreath and put a gold medal around his neck. But there is one final event, one more mountain to climb.

Cheers turn to jeers. Instead of a podium, Jesus mounted the cross. Instead of a crown of laurel, he was crowned with thorns. Instead of a gold medal, they cast lots for his clothes. God’s athlete became lowly, weak, a loser.

The Cross of Christ reveals God’s love does not first consist in conquering the world, but sharing our shame. Sometimes it feels like all we face is loss and humiliation. The Cross is God’s sign for the world that win or lose, no struggle undertaken in love or service is ever wasted. The important thing in life is not winning but the taking part. God gathers into the arms of Christ the fragments of our broken hearts, the experiences of loss and hurt, that by grace somehow add up to more in the end. It is enough.

The road ahead is a shared struggle. Sadly, I have heard too many people argue over which churches “won” Seek the City, as if parishes were competing in games against one another. When many of the parishes were established across Baltimore, they were identified by nationality, founded by immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland, often facing discrimination. The City Church of Baltimore still serves an immigrant population, though you are more likely today to meet Catholics from Africa, Asia, South and Central America. Any given Sunday you may encounter Catholics from all five continents. (Admittedly, I don’t meet many Australians.) This is one of the guiding principles of “Our Eucharistic Vision for the City Church in Baltimore, to form “a Church where everyone feels welcomed and a strong sense of belonging that includes their ethnicity, culture, background, individuality, those who are struggling with their faith, or relationship with God.”

In our celebration of the Eucharist, Jesus takes five loaves, our lives gathered among all five continents of earth, and makes us partakers in a new bond of peace in the unity of the Holy Spirit. We need a more Olympic, Eucharistic vision, in order to see the whole is more than the sum of its parts; the Church is more than the sum of its parishes. One, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is stronger than a thousand separate churches. In the Eucharist, we are “one body, one Spirit in Christ, called to the one hope of our call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4-6). We are faster, higher, stronger—together.

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[1] The original 1894 motto, “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Faster, Higher, Stronger), though spiritual in nature, was officially changed by the International Olympic Committee in 2021 to “Citius, Altius, Fortius—Communiter” (Faster, Higher, Stronger—Together).

[2] Ture Widlund, “Ethelbert Talbot: His Life and Place in Olympic History,” LA84 Foundation <https://web.archive.org/web/20100808015752/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv2n2/JOHv2n2d.pdf> “What is the Olympic Creed?” (Accessed July 27, 2024) <https://olympics.com/ioc/faq/olympic-symbol-and-identity/what-is-the-olympic-creed>

[3] Rule 8 of the Olympic Charter, <https://olympics.com/ioc/news/in-1913-pierre-de-coubertin-designed-one-of-the-world-s-most-famous-symbols>

[4] Nicholas King, SJ, “St Paul and the Olympic Games” Thinking Faith (First posted July 24, 2012) <https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20120724_1.htm> See especially 1 Cor 9:24-27.