You're looking out the window on a cold, wintry Saturday night when you see that it's snowing. No, it's dumping. Suddenly, you're faced with a paralyzing moral dilemma: sacrifice first chair to observe the Sabbath or turn away from the light of God to turn into some fresh, light powder?
That was a quick decision.
Church-going skiers have a multitude of methods for coping with the spiritual implications of their alpine apostasy. Some resorts save wayward souls and precious time by offering Sunday morning religious services on-hill. And for a skier without the benefit of a sermon on his or her mount, there's always the exculpatory mantra that, "The mountain is my church."
I usually interpret a little Luke 14:5 to justify my own turn-making truancies. And my family adopts the common strategy of being pious until opening day, and then prodigal until the pond skim. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord to do that between Easter and Thanksgiving.
For anybody who's ever felt a tinge of guilt skipping church to ski, here's a little more potential absolution. An article in The Telegraph reports that Pope Benedict XVI praised skiing Monday morning as a sport that fosters "steadfastness in pursuing aims, respect for the rules, tenacity in confronting and surmounting difficulties."
The Telegraph article further quotes the Pope as saying:
"In all sporting activities, a person understands better that their body should not be considered an object ... but that it allows them to express themselves and establish relations with others.
"In this way, the balance between the physical and spiritual dimensions leads one not to idolize [sic] the body but to respect it."
So you're saying that I should ski instead of going to church on Sunday? You don't have to answer that. I understand perfectly.
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