Paris and the Christian revolutionFor many rankings I see around these days, there is no woman with more medals than Maria. And I refer to the facts. On August 15, we celebrated her great victory in the final and I will explain why you should be happier than if you had won the gold yourself.
In the recent Olympic Games, we have all enjoyed the victories of our athletes (each one with those of his country, of course). With the best known athletes or in the most popular categories, it makes sense, but it is a little strange to see how a complete stranger gets a victory in a sport discipline that we did not even know of its existence and, because he or she is a compatriot, we feel it as our own.
How many hours, days, months and years of training, with cold, heat, economic hardship, etc., has that person gone through without us taking an interest in them, and now we are appropriating their victory?
The Olympics show us every four years that the true national sport is to win medals from the couch, and I won't say that without lifting a finger because the TV and air conditioning controls have to be operated somehow.
On the other hand, patriotic adherence made much more sense when the world was more closed; but in our multicultural societies, marked by large migratory movements, geographical limitations are increasingly blurred and there are athletes who one would never say at first glance that they belong to the country they represent. Some even have to choose which flag to compete under because they have multiple nationalities and there are even those who play in representation of an ensign with which they do not feel identified. So who are mine and who are the others?
Meanwhile, on the feast of the Assumption we celebrate, not the ascension to Olympus, but to heaven itself of one of my own, of my family: Mary. And that is a victory in which we all participate! Because, just as with Eve all humanity fell under the curse of sin and death; thanks to Mary, the new Eve, all nations are involved in the blessing of grace and eternal life.
With a thousand and one different names, all the peoples of the world invoke Our Lady today and celebrate their feasts with her because the reward she has received, being already in heaven in body and soul, is a reward truly shared with each one of us.
As when a city welcomes its champions and makes them travel through the streets in a panoramic bus, in many localities the Virgin will be taken out in procession these days, to be acclaimed by all and so that everyone can feel her close.
When we speak of the Assumption of the Virgin, we are speaking of her full configuration with the risen Christ. That is to say: she who has been assumed (assumed) by God, is already with Him everywhere. Time and space do not separate us from her. Mary is here, present in body and soul, even if we are not able to discover her with our senses.
She is the first, the one who has opened for us the gates of glory and the one who, from there (right here), accompanies us, guides us and consoles us in each training session that is every day of our life, towards the definitive encounter with the Father.
There are many falls to come, many injuries, many heartaches and loneliness on the road to the goal, but at no time does she stop being by our side, as do the best coaches, as do the best mothers of gymnasts.
Traditionally, millions of believers have wanted to remind us of this close and perpetual presence by materializing her image in the form of a medal that we hang around our necks. That is why, at the beginning of the article, I was playing with the idea that there is no one with more medals than her.
If you wear one, take the opportunity to wear it today with pride as if it were an Olympic gold. Because today we are celebrating, because today we have all climbed the podium with it. Congratulations!
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
