Dear Christ the King Family,
I remember during our Novitiate year in Colorado, Fr. Geoff Mooney (who, you probably already know, is an avid runner!) took a nasty spill on some ice and banged up his knee, so he had to stay off of running for about a month as he healed up. And I remember a few weeks into that rest he looked really downcast and I asked him why he seemed so blue. He replied how it’s been tough for him to have to pause his daily routine of going on a run. I probably had a puzzled look in my face as I responded (insensitively), “That’s what you’re sad about?” Admittedly, I’ve never been the biggest fan of running in the sense of individual exercise and I really admire those who have a passion for running and wish I could have that same desire!
I share that as background information for an experience a few years later when some of my friends in our MDiv theology program invited me to sign up to run the Holy Half Marathon at Notre Dame with them at the start of the 2018 Fall semester. I thought it would be a cool accomplishment and I felt encouraged that we would run it together, so I signed up. Many months lay ahead of us to train and prepare, and my friends took their training seriously. As for myself…you probably see where this was going! The Fall Semester came and went, but I promised that after Christmas Break I would get on track…and then January turned into February. Surely, I’ll get my act together for Lent! Ash Wednesday arrived and the weeks of Lent started to pass by… It was now a week away from the race day in April and I had not prepared at all! I felt bad about backing out from my friends so I decided I would start the race and I would just step off the course when I couldn’t go any more. The funny thing is, I was able to complete the half marathon! But the now-obvious reason I overlooked about why that training was so important was that my muscles weren’t prepared for that level of exertion. So I did finish the race, but also my legs seized up soon after crossing the finish line and I could hardly walk for the days that followed! I realized that all of that training would be important not just to complete the race, but to complete it well and to actually rejoice in crossing that finish line rather than staggering and limping over.
That memory and that lesson comes to mind when I hear our Second Reading this weekend from the Letter to the Hebrews: “At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.” That’s not just true for running, but for our spiritual lives as well! The call to discipleship, imitating Christ, and following His Commandments are demanding and require a continual practice—but that is to prepare us to receive even more of the divine life and grace God wants to offer! That requires a continual striving for the narrow gate with our Lord’s help, and it can be easy to forget that even that striving is itself a gift and an offer of grace from God. Perhaps, then, our spiritual journey isn’t just about “crossing the finish line” at the end, but running the race of life well wherever we may be on the Way.
In Christ,
Fr. David
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