Olympic Sacrilege
If you watched the very long opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics, you are aware that Christianity was more than the butt of jokes; it was mocked and spat upon. To take it a step further, as Catholics in the United States emerged from the powerful Eucharistic Congress held last week in Indianapolis, they chose the apex of their assault to be an image of The Last Supper, the moment in history when Christ institutes the Eucharist, the source and summit of our Catholic faith.
Anti-Catholic bigotry. Sacrilege.
As parents, we can’t ignore what our children will undoubtedly hear about. This week, you must address what has happened in your home. You give your children the lens through which they encounter the world.
Here are some talking points for Catholic families:
The willingness of the planning team of the opening ceremony for the 2024 Olympics to mock Christianity brings us deep sadness. But as Christians, as the Body of Christ, our heart must break for what God’s heart breaks for— His heart doesn’t break from their insult; it breaks because they have fallen so far away from Him. Our Lord mourns the distance each of them has fallen from Him and wants nothing more for them to return to His arms.
Whether we believe in Him or not, He is still there. He is the God who knows the depths of our hearts—even the places we struggle to reach. He knows our yuck, our sin, sorrow, and secrets… He knows it all, and He is still so in love with us that even if we were the only soul to ever walk the earth, He would die again for us. But to accept His gift of mercy and salvation, we must turn back to Him to receive it. We must pray that those who have walked away from Christ take the first step in returning to Him.
The Eucharist is the heartbeat of the Catholic Church, without which the Body of Christ would wither and die. It is the Sacrament towards which every other sacrament is ordered. It is the closest, most tangible encounter we can have with God on this side of heaven. The Eucharist is the Bread of Life, the sustenance of our existence, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Church is under attack; name a time in history when it wasn’t!... The Scriptures have prepared us for that.
We must ask ourselves, do we live like we believe? We will re-commit to sharing the Gospel with our hands, our lips, and our hearts with holy, urgent boldness. We will discuss what that looks like in our day-to-day lives, knowing that it must begin with a reverence for the God-given dignity of our neighbor.
As a final thought, one of my all-time favorite authors, Dr. Peter Kreeft, begins his book Making Choices with this: “The City of God was written to show us that even when the whole world comes tumbling down around us, even when Rome and civilization falls and tomorrow morning is the Dark Ages—even then we are to look up and work and hope and be joyful because we are citizens not of the dying world but of the living city of God.”
Our job as parents is to give our children the hope of Christ, even when most are choosing despair. It begins with conversations and must carry itself to the foot of the Cross where we receive the Bread of Life, the sustenance of our existence, the most Holy Eucharist.
In response to this blasphemy, we ask our Pelican community to commit to a holy hour this week for the conversion of souls. We also ask that you pray for and cheer alongside the athletes who had no part in this sin, especially those whose Christian faith is under attack.
We are praying for you as you navigate this thing called parenthood in a very broken world! AND! Don’t forget to read this week’s PGS with your kiddos, classroom, and parish as we continue the "Evangelium Vitae" Pray, Grow, Serve series. In it, we can't possibly exhaust Pope St. John Paul's encyclical, but we can highlight key points that will continue to develop the lens through which your child views the world with an eye for the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of every human life.
For more information about joyfully reawakening a culture of life within your domestic church, visit www.pelicanprojectministry.org.
