In 2012, The first Kairós for athletes happened in the Canção Nova Community in Cachoeira Paulista, SP, Brazil. Father Ademir, member of the community participated in the event and then presided over mass, here is an except from his homily:

The Book of Exodus presents the difficulties on the road, but blessed persecution, because that drove the people of God to the desert. In the desert only the courageous are conquerors. Thus the men of garra, those that seek to confront the roads of life with courage reach the Lord. The teaching for  us is that we need to have the soul of an athlete, filled with perservance to reach the Lord.

God presented the temptations that could seduze them, presenting fidelity to Him as the fundamental rule to complete the road, this is to reach the promised land. God is preoccupied with the road, with sacrifices of the road and with the arrival. We see thus, the Lord presented to the people the way of discipline as the fundamental law to reach the promised land.

Therefore, the ten commandments are rules for us  to arrive to the will of God, not for us to be lost in the desert. Thus, through discipline, we can live the commandments,  through them we will not be lost. In this way, for us to reach the will of God we need to be disciplined in the living of the commandments.

The discipline is therefore, the proper life of the athlete, and for us the road to holiness.

The Blessed John Paul II affirmed that every Christian is called to be an athlete of Christ.

Each Christian needs to walk in the desert with discipline to reach holiness. We learn from Monsignor Jonas that without discipline there is no holiness. You already observed that the great leaders encountered in the Word of God, passed through training in the desert. Moses, Elijah, Jesus and others in the desert they learned to train for discipline, to train for holiness.”

from the blog Esportes [Sports] from Canção Nova

translated from Portuguese