In the early hours of this year’s summer Olympics, the clash between secular and religious worldviews ignited. Even if you missed the games, you likely heard about the controversial opening scene that some have described as an ancient Greek orgy.
Though past now, it’s worth reviewing. Was the tableau really a mockery of the Last Supper as some have contended? Even the Christian community was divided over whether we should be offended. Those who claimed we were clutching our pearls were also quick to scold us ignoramus peasants on our cultural illiteracy. (Sigh…)
It’s possible that those behind the display didn’t really understand what they were doing and didn’t mean to offend anyone—or at least that wasn’t their overt intention. The covert intention, now that’s a different matter. In a morally depraved culture, hidden motives can sneak into art in many ways. But we may never know.
It might help some annoyed by the reaction from some faithful to consider the timing. Many Catholics in the United States had just left a beautiful event in Indianapolis , in which we adored our Lord in the Eucharistic host for nearly a week, in a football stadium filled with unparalleled joy and unity. We were especially sensitive, perhaps, to the contradiction between the sacredness of our lived faith experiences and what appeared a mockery of that. And we had a right, and even a duty, to protest it.
But I’m always heartened by the ways in which God brings light into the darkness, as was the case as the games progressed. I first noticed divine rectification when Rayssa Leal, a young Christian, 16, from Brazil, gracefully announced, in sign language, that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life after winning a bronze medal. Another young Olympian, hurdler gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin, proclaimed, “I would take my love for Christ and that relationship over a gold medal any day.”
And then there was Novak Djokovic’s dramatic show of emotion when he got down on his knees, gesturing in gratitude to God with the sign of the cross and pointing to the sky, after winning gold in tennis. Simone Biles also let her faith be known, saying that she doesn’t understand her success, but attributes it to being “a God-given talent.”
These athletes understand well where the glory ought to go and that only God’s grace could have gotten them as far as they’ve come. As believers, our lives should all be a continuous hymn of praise to our good God. The witness to faith of these athletes speaks louder than any flagrant demonstration of worldly sentiment.
Even those who don’t have God on their horizons yearn, on some level, to be near his ever-flowing goodness. May those who’ve been bestowed the gift of knowing our Lord offer any slights back to God, that the world might awaken to his truth, and that we might all bow down together, someday soon, in sincere worship of the One who has given us everything.
[For the sake of having a repository for my newspaper columns and articles, I reprint them here, with permission, a week or more after their run date. The preceding ran in The Forum newspaper on Aug. 18, 2024.]
Leave a Reply