St. Louis, Mo., January 15, 2023 / 08:00 am
Saint John Paul II once said that “every Christian is called to be a strong athlete of Christ – that is, a faithful and courageous witness to his Gospel”.
Although it is clear that the holy Pope was speaking allegingly, he himself was a sports lover, as are billions of people around the world.
Only a small fraction of all athletes will play their sport at the collegiate level, and even fewer will pursue a career of their choice. However, in the United States in particular, sports and sporting excellence are often a pastime – especially for young elites.
But what happens when, so to speak, the jumper ends? Two prominent Catholic speakers, both of whom had successful athletic careers before becoming vocations, spoke to CNA this month at the SEEK23 conference in St. Louis about what happened when God called them from their sport.
‘If Christ is not the center of my life, something else will be’
Sister Miriam James Heidland of the Society of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity described sports as her “first love,” having been interested in watching and playing them since she was young. She went on to play Division 1 volleyball in college.
“I wasn’t good enough to go pro, so I knew that wasn’t going to happen, but I really wanted to pursue a career in sports journalism, work for ESPN or something, ” Heidland told CNA.
Her life then changed when she suffered complications after knee surgery while in college. Her doctor had to sit her down and give her the sad news that she had to quit volleyball or her future mobility would be compromised.
“And I really had an identity crisis. I didn’t know myself as an athlete,” Heidland said. “And those were all my friends and those were the people I hung out with and that’s what I did every day. So I wasn’t an athlete more than the time of intense darkness for me.”
At that difficult time in Heidland’s life, a trusted priest friend helped her better understand God’s plan, beginning her response to God’s call to become a religious sister.
Heidland was quick to point out, echoing St. John Paul II, that sports offer many benefits to society and individuals. For example, being physically active is good for everyone, and developing the skills of determination and teamwork are positive and important, she said.
“When [sport] is excellently lived — which you see in John Paul II, who has a great love for athletics and sport — when it is well lived, it protects the spiritual life and brings great joy to … There are so many similarities between the spiritual life. and what it takes to excel in sport,” she noted.
“We respect people who are willing to get up every day and do the hard things and keep going and keep going and fight things. And that persistence has helped me many times. I’ve been in religious life many times when I have memories of being on the volleyball court and pushing through.”
The danger, she said, comes when a person sees his or her identity as an athlete, rather than as a child of God. Because eventually, she said, everyone’s athletic ability will “die.”
“Not to be morose about it, but there will be a day when not all of us are athletes anymore,” said Heidland.
“I had to confront myself: If Christ is not the center of my life, something else will be. And my life will rise and fall based on how I do on the athletic field, what my social media account looks like, whether someone likes me or not, whether I’m doing well in my job And I mean, yes, those things will affect us, but they will affect our identity if our identity is not in Christ.”
Heidland warned against families becoming so involved in sports that it harms the practice of religion — they start asking for Sunday Mass, for example.
“If we miss Mass and if we miss that because of sports, we’re completely out of order,” Heidland said.
“Because the sport will die. You blow your knee, or you don’t make the best team, they’re done with you. It’s a system, it’s a business … so if I’m not really clear about who I am and what I’m about, it’s going to be very difficult.”
‘I wanted to be great at something’
Father Chase Hilgenbrinck, a priest of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, serving in his second year as vocations director, played soccer in college and at the professional level. He grew up in an athletic family and as a child idolized famous athletes such as basketball legend Michael Jordan.
“Growing up, I was just like any other American kid who wanted to be great at something,” he told CNA. The priesthood was not on his radar at all.
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
At Catholic News Agency, our team is committed to reporting the truth with courage, integrity and fidelity to our faith. We provide news about the Church and the world, as seen through the teachings of the Catholic Church. When you subscribe to the CNA Update, we’ll send you a daily email with links to the news you want and, occasionally, breaking news.
As part of this free service you may occasionally receive offers from us at EWTN News and EWTN. This may interest you : Haslam Sports Group welcomes four fellows to the 2022 HSG Diversity and Opportunity Fellowship Program. We will not rent or sell your information, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
After playing soccer at Clemson University, Hilgenbrinck played professionally in Chile before joining Major League Soccer in the US. He ended up playing for the New England Revolution in Massachusetts.
At first, he had nothing to do with the priesthood. In previous cases when people told him he would make a good priest, it “went in one ear and out the other.”
Hilgenbrinck began to listen and respond to God’s call to be a priest when he realized that the various “jumpers” he had worn throughout his life were not giving him the fulfillment he needed. But when Hilgenbrinck heard the first call to become a priest, he said that he was not a “real Christian man”; he described himself spiritually as “still a boy.” He wanted to be a soccer star, not a priest of Jesus Christ.
“Often in life, we believe … that we have even greater desires than God has for us. ‘Why isn’t he fulfilling my desires?’ I feel that I desire more than he does, which is false, and it’s a misunderstanding,” Hilgenbrinck said.
“We start covering our lives with things, because we are afraid that God is not going to show up. So we start putting on jumpers,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter what those things are: it could be music, it could be academics, it could be our job, it could be a relationship in our life. All these things are different jerseys that we could wear, so to speak, throughout our lives.”
While playing soccer professionally in Chile, a country he had no connection with and did not yet speak the language, Hilgenbrinck had fallen back on what he knew, which was the Catholic Church. Later, his interest in practicing his faith began to grow. He was struck by a quote from the late Pope Benedict XVI: “You are not made comfortable. You are made for the great.”
He retired from Major League Soccer in 2008 to join Mount St. John’s Seminary. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria in 2014.
Hilgenbrinck – who today coaches soccer when he has the time – encouraged every coach to be a “good translator of victory”. As for Hilgenbrinck, a quote from St. John Paul II caught his attention: “Sports are a school of moral virtues.”
“An athlete who goes to practice every day and trains – look at all the skills they’re learning in one day of training. And they do that every day and then they play in games, and the discipline it takes; realizing that a team is bigger than me, sacrificing for teammates, the team or the win, putting myself last so that the team can be first, losing with great class, winning to very good. I mean, all these things we learned,” Hilgenbrinck said.
“Then you realize that these are the exact qualities that I need to cultivate to be a mature Christian,” he said.
Like Heidland, Hilgenbrinck was quick to point out that despite any dangers, sports are mostly beneficial to society and individuals.
“Today it seems that there is more talk about the bad of the sport than the good of the sport. And so I think we shouldn’t make them mutually exclusive. And so I often think that’s not helpful because the young people and even their parents see that this is so good for their kids, and there’s such a passion there,” said Hilgenbrinck.
“[But] if sports are taking the place of God and our lives and our victories and they’re distracting us … we’ve gone too far. So there has to be an understanding, that’s what I would say to families that are so intertwined in sport. Where is this leading? … [What happens] when the jumper takes off? Who are you? And if we don’t know the answer to that question, and if we’re not training for that answer, we’re probably too far gone.”
Jonah McKeown is a staff writer and podcast producer for the Catholic News Agency. He has a Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has worked as a writer, public radio producer, and videographer. It is located in St. Louis.
