Virtue and victory
Father Maurice Moon poses with the seminary basketball team. (photo courtesy/Fr. Moon)
I had the opportunity to coach our seminary basketball team to victory in the St. Francis de Sales Seminary Invitational this past February in Milwaukee. Sixteen teams competed, and it was a high level of basketball as many of the seminarians played in high school and some in college. Our team showed grit, great team play, and perseverance to win it.
One of the things I thought about during that tournament was how sports can help lead us to God, grow in virtue, and discern one’s vocation.
During the tournament, we played six games in 36 hours. In the semifinals, the game went into triple overtime in a gym filled with screaming fans cheering for the opposing team and rooting against us. We got down at times, but our team continued trusting in their teammates, fighting to win, and overcoming these challenges.
Fortitude, or courage, is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. I saw our team practice the virtue of fortitude, amid fatigue and adversity, by choosing not to give up or lose their cool, for the pursuit of God, for their teammates, for victory. The championship game the next day was much easier after having fought so hard the night before.
In 2000, St. John Paul II said in his homily on the Jubilee of Sports People: “Every Christian is called to become a strong athlete of Christ, that is, a faithful and courageous witness to His Gospel. But to succeed in this, he must persevere in prayer, be trained in virtue and follow the divine Master in everything.”
He reminded us of the need to persevere both in prayer and virtue if we are going to follow Christ. Sports can help with this.
In sports, a battle takes place within a person when he or she can be tried by physical and emotional exhaustion, tried by a superior opponent, tried by pain, by loss, or by circumstances where one feels treated unfairly during the competition. These factors play a part in teaching the Christian athlete valuable lessons of fortitude and perseverance through adversity.
We know life is a battle, particularly a spiritual battle. St. Paul says, “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Without God’s grace and our practice of virtue, these spiritual forces will overpower us, causing us to lose hope.
God in His Providence allows battles to happen in our lives that seem too difficult, opposition that seems insurmountable to overcome. For He wants to remind us that we need Him, we need His grace — and our cooperation with this grace — to achieve victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Virtue is needed in one’s daily relationship with God and especially in discerning one’s vocation. The thought of priesthood or religious life can seem too difficult, too scary. But if one has learned to practice the virtue of fortitude repeatedly, the priesthood and religious life become viable vocations because one has learned to trust in God and persevere.
Although sports can turn into an idol, lead into vainglory or other sins, sports played in a Christian way can help men and women learn important lessons of virtue, like fortitude and perseverance. Sports can help train Christians to accept the vocation God wants for them because they have learned to practice virtue and self-control amid adversity.
Not only are sports a healthy form of leisure, but they can help train a Christian to become a better soldier for Christ. Ultimately, success in sports does not depend on winning the game, but on exercising virtue to win the crown of eternal glory. “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one” (1 Corinthians 9:25).
Father Maurice Moon serves as chaplain at Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth and as Director of Collegian Seminarian Formation with the diocesan Vocations Office. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2018.