I am sure most of you have been watching the Olympics. It has been exciting to see how everything is unfolding. I was fascinated by an article someone forwarded to me about Michael Phelps. The last person who had won as many individual championships as Michael Phelps was Leonidas of Rhodes. He won 12 titles in the 2nd Century B.C. Over 2,000 years has passed before his World Record was broken.
Two years ago in 2014, Michael Phelps made the news, and it wasn’t for a good reason. He received his second DUI in 10 years. Immediately afterwards, there were pictures of him doing pot. Then a few days later, there were pictures of him smoking an illegal substance. There he was, a Gold Medal Olympic Champion, who appeared to be throwing his life away! The news stories and articles were calling him a dope and an idiot. They said he was wasting his life away.
What we did not realize was what was going on in his life. He finally told the whole story of what was happening in his heart and in his life at the time. When the stories came out in 2014, he said, “I was a train wreck. I was like a time bomb waiting to go off. I had no self-esteem or self-worth. There were times when I didn’t want to be here. It was not good. I felt lost.”
Can you imagine this, being an Olympic Champion and having no self-worth? He hit rock bottom and the days that followed he began to isolate himself. He spent an entire week just in his home, isolated, with very little sleep. At the time he said, “This is the end of my life. How many times will I mess up? Maybe the world will be better without me.” During that time, Michael Phelps was actually pondering committing suicide. It was two years ago.
Then his longtime friend, NFL star Ray Lewis, an outspoken Christian, came to him and intervened. Ray Lewis said to him, “This is when we fight. This is when real character shows up! Don’t shut down. If you shut down not only do you lose, we all lose.” Ray handed him a spiritual book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” by Rick Warren. When Phelps went into treatment, he took that book with him and it really changed his life. It helped him begin to turn his life around. He hit rock bottom but instead of continuing to go down that path, God intervened and really turned his life around. And it happened through Ray Lewis.
I think we can really gleam three points from this story. I would like to focus on the Second Reading and on the Gospel. We hear in the Second Reading which has a similar theme of the Olympics. He says that, “Let us rid ourselves of every burden and every sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.” You may think about life like a marathon. Or being like this Olympic event where someday we are going to get to heaven, and someday we are going to become Saints.
The first point I want to make is the reality in Baptism is you were called to be a Saint. I was called to be a Saint. In Baptism it is as if you were called to be this Olympic Champion. From the very moment of your Baptism, you are given everything that you needed to become this Olympian, this Saint here on Earth.
I think about what it must be like to be an Olympic Champion who is chosen. Someone that has these gifts and talents. They are given every opportunity and given the best coaches in the world. Phelps’ coach became a father figure to him. He trained him and raised him.
The realty is in Baptism you were given this. You have priests to guide you. You have this entire parish community to be with you. You have your family to support you. All to help you one day enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the first point, you are not called to be an Olympic champion, but to be a Saint. You have everything that you need to become a Saint.
The second point I want to make is that sometimes Saints fall. Sometimes we fall. Two years ago, if you look at Michael Phelps, an Olympic Champion, he hit rock bottom. That was the worst point in his life. He considered committing suicide. He had two DUI’s and he was doing drugs.
The reality is that sometimes we fall. If you look at some of the great Saints of the church, they fell but they got back up. St. Augustine’s classic line was, “Lord, make me a Saint but not yet.” He just was not ready for it yet. Think of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Before he was a Saint, he was a womanizer. He really just wanted to conquer as many women as he could conquer. That is really what he did. St. Francis of Assisi came from a very wealthy family. One day he finally decided to turn all the wealth aside, left his family, left his wealth, and founded the Franciscans. Today we have the Franciscans.
We fall but we get back up. I want you to think about that. Maybe you have fallen and there has been some addiction in your life that you have fallen back into. Maybe there has been some moral failing or some sexual failing that you have fallen back into. Maybe it has been alcohol or drugs or anything. It does not matter that we fall. What really matters is that we get back up. Allow God to use us again.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus said, “I have come to set the Earth on fire, and how I wish it were already a blazing!” We hear Jesus saying He is so tired of the apathy of the world. The reality is that He is coming to set us on fire! He wishes that we were already a blazing. He realizes that when we become Saints, when we truly live this life on Earth, at times it will cause division. Maybe even for people sitting in the pews. Maybe your children are not here with you. Maybe your husband or wife is not with you. Maybe your faith causes your division. That is okay. Jesus said that it will. For those of us that are truly becoming Saints, we are going to be set apart. We should expect there to be some division. The holier we grow, sometimes the more people will reject us. Hopefully, in the end God will bring us together. The second point is, if you have fallen, get back up. Go to Confession. Return to your faith and return to the Sacraments.
The third point I want to talk about is how Michael Phelps was helped by a spiritual book given to him by Ray Lewis. We can help other people. We can help the people who are not here in church today, the people that have maybe hit rock bottom, and the people who are not doing very well in life. We can help them. We can be that angel who helps turn their life around. Try to think of one person today. One person that is away from the faith. One person that is making very bad choices in their life. Think of one person that, possibly, everybody else has given up on. Try to do something for them. Give them a good spiritual book. Give them a sacramental. Take them to church or invite them on a pilgrimage. Do something special for that person. As we hear in the Second Reading, we have a great cloud of witnesses. We are all supposed to do this together. Then, one day, when we get to heaven
(I cannot help but think of the parade for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers), there will be a parade like that in heaven. That is what it is going to be like when we get up again after falling. The entire communion of angels and Saints, this wonderful cloud of witnesses, is going to be celebrating our victory. Not our Olympic Gold Medal, but our entering into heaven and ultimately our becoming Saints right here on Earth.
