You’re wondering why I’m writing about a South Korean priest who has never been to El Salvador. (He would if he could, having traveled to over 30 different countries.) The reason is simple: four days a week I run through the mountains around Agua Caliente dodging cattle headed to water, dogs who’ve never seen a leash, and cars which abide by a system of unspoken laws that I don’t understand. I do all this because six years ago H. Paul heard the St. Irenaeus quote, “The glory of God is the living man” and interpreted this to mean that he should run marathons to raise money for kids in Madagascar. (Yes, after months of badgering him, I got him to change the quote to “living person”.) You can read more about his story at his website http://www.frhpaul.org/.
But how’d I get roped in to this mess? This I ask myself daily. Basically, H. Paul is stubborn. Last year, for three months, I told him that I wouldn’t run the Cleveland Half-Marathon. But I forgot the first rule of all things at JCU, which is "H. Paul wins." So yeah, he broke me and I ran it. You can watch my “enthusiasm” for the race in his promotional video on YouTube here. This year, knowing his persistence would wear me down, I agreed to run the whole race from day one.
I’ve tried to write about my experience of running and I keep drawing a blank. There’s not much positive. I don’t run every time I’m supposed to. I don’t meet my mileage goal every time. I don’t get up as early as I want to run when it’s still cool. I don’t run nearly as fast as I’d like to. I don’t feel good afterward. Sure, I’m fitter and have lost some weight (not that I needed too), but my feet hurt daily and I’ve got some gnarly blisters on the fourth toes of each foot. I sweat so much that I have dehydration headaches some days after really long runs. There’s not much positive in this for me, yet I keep doing it.
Admittedly, there are aspects I like. Getting to the top of a mountain or seeing one of my students in the street or experiencing the shock when I tell someone I ran 22 kilometers – these all give me pleasure, but they aren’t what push me through the pain of long runs. What keeps me going, I think, is the mystery of H. Paul. What gets him to run? What has he discovered about himself and about God by physically punishing himself to help the poor? Yes, he’s written a “marathon spirituality”, but the intrigue for me is his giving of his bodily self to do good for others.
The homily today was long and I didn’t like it very much. Besides only understanding half, what I did translate from Padre Javier had to do with the importance of the Lenten practice of mortification of the body. I think he meant stuff like flogging yourself or using one of those medieval spiky leg belts that cuts into you. That stuff is ancient and, as far as I’m concerned, offensive to the message of Christ, but then I realized that before Mass I ran up a mountain for 5 miles only to have to run back down. That’s self-inflicted torture. And that was when I think I started to understand.
Marathon spirituality is letting go of ownership of your body, giving it to God. It shapes your days, your eating and drinking, your sleeping and waking, everything revolves around it. And the training hurts. The pain helps you let go of your attachment to comfort, to security, to wealth. In El Salvador, my body has not been mine; it has been for and with the poor. That is what my whole experience here has been and will continue to be. Running teaches me, very physically, that my whole self can live, love, and even hurt for others.
My body is not mine; it is for and with the poor.
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Anyway, here’s my pitch to raise money with H. Paul for the kids in East Cleveland and in Madagascar. This is what H. Paul has to say:
To commemorate the 125th anniversary of John Carroll in a way that reflects the spirit and mission of the University, the goal of Living Person 7 is to have 125 runners participate in the Cleveland Marathon and raise $12,500 to support the children in the Fatima Family Center in Cleveland, Ohio and to support the children of Madagascar, Africa.
Past “Living Person” runs have raised funds to help the children of Cleveland have a good meal at Thanksgiving and have fed the homeless and poor children in the slums of Madagascar.
What is “Living Person” all about?
St. Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is the living person.” He believed that God’s glory manifests in people that are fully alive. The Living Person believes that he/she can glorify God through the body, like taking part in the marathon (hint, hint).
After coming back from Madagascar, Africa in 2005, I was eager to do something beautiful for God and His people in that part of the world. So I ran the Cleveland Marathon, gathering people and raising money for the homeless shelter run by the Missionary of Charity Brothers. Since then, the “Living Person” has lived out what it means to be one with the poor in their discipline through participation in the marathon.
I also run (and encourage others to run) in support of the Fatima Family Center, which does amazing things for God’s children. The John Carroll campus community strongly supports the Fatima Family Center, and I’m happy to encourage more support for it and the children of Madagascar. So please come out and run, cheer our runners on, or donate!
You can donate (with a tax return) at this JCU website.
As I attempt to procrastinate from my looming papers, I am glad to see the great and glorious dungeon of Founders Hall has traveled with you.
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