Beijing – a leap forward
01.08.2008
Columban Fr Jim Mulroney reflects on the Olympic games in Beijing from Hong Kong.
“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well,” is the articulated ethos of the founder of the modern Olympic Movement.
However, the Olympic spirit moves far beyond the fight. It’s also described by its founder as placing sport at the service of harmonious development of the people of the world. Its spirit enters into the real life arena of human relationships, the same place where politics and religion interact.
It is in this arena that politicians seek to wield their influence and where religious organisations and prophets preach their moral message of right, just and peaceful relationships.
China has made a deliberate decision to enter this world. It has planned for years, rebuilding great swathes of its cities to house venues for the various disciplines of the Olympia, even sought perfect weather through high tech meteorological interference. However, the rocky passage of the Olympic Torch around the globe has left a fear lingering in many minds that it may not be prepared to perform in the demanding arena where the empirical reacts with the spiritual.
However, a deliberate decision was made to run that course and China has opened itself to the scrutiny of the world as never before. With St Paul, China does realise that “though all the runners in the stadium take part in the race, only one of them gets a prize” (1 Cor. 9:24). However, it will not be content with a wreath that will wither.
China has long prided itself on its ability to control its own destiny, to be self-sufficient. The very act of bidding for the Olympic Games was an indication of change for which the country has already displayed a great ability over the past decade or so.
The world has a right to place hope in the Beijing Olympics. When the games took place in Seoul in 1988, they happened in a Korea where people still feared the consequences of speaking their mind. Just 20 years later, we see the same country respecting the voice of massive street demonstrations.
In the devastated earthquake zone of Sichuan, we saw the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, with helplessness in his eyes, looking at his suffering subjects in a new way. We have witnessed a government working to relieve suffering and ready to admit shortcomings and inabilities.
This is the cross roads of politics and religion. In Beijing there is hope for new destinies.
Fr Mulroney is the Editor of the Sunday Examiner newspaper in Hong Kong.
