Tomorrow, we celebrate the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a noble figure for his academic accomplishments and his life of sanctity. By the grace of God, he persevered through many challenges: threats to his vocation as a friar preacher, accusations of heresy, and mistreatment from his own brethren. To overcome all of these trials, he needed hope, a hope that endured and from which he drew great strength. Saint Thomas, therefore, can teach us a great deal about hope, specifically the three different types of hope: the passion of hope, the natural virtue of hope, which Saint Thomas calls magnanimity, and the theological virtue of hope. We can parse more from Saint Thomas’s teachings on hope by looking at them through the lens of sports and in doing so you will see how sports can help us grow in sanctity.
The passion of hope is a passion or feeling rooted in the sensitive appetite that moves us to pursue a difficult future good. It is instinctual. Imagine young hungry athletes being driven home after practice. Food is the future good their hope desires and the car ride home is a difficult obstacle. Why? Because the young athletes have to wait patiently while they are “starving” for food. This passion causes the young athletes to direct all their energy to attaining food.
In human beings, hope also exists at the level of the intellect. This hope is called magnanimity, which allows one to pursue difficult goods by one’s own strength. Take the following scenario. At the start of a season, a team may have hopes of winning a championship, and its performance in practice can either strengthen or weaken their hope. For example, after a great play in practice by the starting shortstop a nearby teammate who witnessed the play says, “With him, we have a chance to win a championship.” The athlete is using his intellect to determine whether he can be hopeful or not. When we see that the desired good will not be as difficult as we had thought, our hope increases, while when we see things that show otherwise, our hope decreases.
The highest form of hope is the theological virtue of hope. According to Aquinas, the theological virtue of hope is given by God. It enables us to desire eternal life in heaven and to trust in God’s help to attain it. In other words, we cannot attain this form of hope on our own and yet we need it for heaven. It is a great gift from God! This form of hope soars above the other two because its sole object is the attainment of God himself. The theological virtue of hope helps us sanctify our lives because it leads us to desire and trust in God. This propels us to order everything we do toward God, bringing us into a greater union with him. This affects all aspects of life. The athlete can sanctify his sport and life as a whole by submitting all he endures, both joyful and sorrowful, to God for the salvation of his soul and those of others. Whether it is early morning workouts, long practices, an injury, or a joyous moment like winning a championship, it can all be offered up to God. Although it may seem odd, this idea is prevalent among the Saints. For example St. Therese of Lisieux did everything, including her chores, with love. Saint Dominic walked barefoot on thorns for the salvation of souls. The Saints offered everything, their pain and the mundane, to God. Athletes and non-athletes alike are called to offer their lives (and pains) to God because it is he who is our ultimate end and the object of our highest hopes. I encourage you, athlete or not, to offer up your day and all its sorrows. Ask St. Thomas Aquinas to pray for you, that you may be a Saint who is filled with hope.
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Image: Photo by Tim Gouw on StockSnap
