Last Friday we participated in a Guatemalan Independence Day tradition known as the “antorcha” or “torch.” As a sign of their independence there is a tradition of running a torch from Guatemala to Costa Rica. It is also a tradition for schools to have their own “antorcha” running through nearby towns and on Friday our school participated in this tradition (above is a picture of me running with the torch) with a 15K run (of which I may have run about half of and carried the torch for all of five seconds).
The run reminded me of some advice which Sarah Swafford, my Resident Director my freshman year at Benedictine (she's pretty awesome, she has a website now http://www.sarahswafford.com/, and she was on EWTN), likes to pass on in regards to finding your future spouse, “run with God and then see who is running beside you.” This advice always makes me want to literally run for some reason and while I was running on Friday I reflected a lot on what running means in my life.
Running is a sacrifice, I don’t like doing it, but I’m usually happy that I did afterwards. I remember one time I was running with a group of girls at Benedictine and one of them said she wanted to offer up our run for someone and asked us who if we wanted to offer up our run for anyone. Since then I always offer up my run for someone as a way of uniting my sacrifice to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and praying for someone in need. Running builds community, if I don’t have someone else running with me I won’t do it but if I tell someone I will run with them most of the time I don’t back out. It’s also a great opportunity to get to know someone better, I’ve often had great conversations while running, especially when we pray and offer up our run together at the start. Running is a time for me to reflect on my relationship with Christ. Thanks to Sarah Swafford, I now associate running literally with metaphorically running towards Christ and often while I am running and thinking about how much my legs hurt I turn my mind towards Christ “am I running to him in my life right now? how fast? how much do my legs hurt?”
So as I was running this 15K (it was all downhill so don’t be too impressed), all of these things were going through my mind. The group running with the torch would get ahead of me and other people would fall behind so I was stuck in this awkward lonely running by myself state and my legs would be hurting and my lungs would be burning but then I would pass some Guatemalans walking along the street or sitting outside their house and they would cheer for me, and it seemed like they would always cheer louder for me than for the group in front of me, maybe because they could see the anguish on my face caused by the running, or maybe because it looked like I was even more tired than I was because my pale gringa face gets really red when I run. In my run to Christ these people represent the Saints, up in heaven cheering me on, giving me the little extra energy I need to keep running and to smile while doing it through their intercession. Sometimes, I would get tired of running by myself or think my legs couldn’t carry me further. During these times I would hop on the bus that belonged to the school and ride it until we caught up with the group up front (hence why I only ran about half of the 15K). In my run to Christ the bus represents Christ and the sacraments. Sometimes our legs can’t carry us anymore, but during these times Christ carries us. When I got on the bus I would be handed a bag of water to drink. The water was like the Eucharist, replenishing me, giving me strength. Sometimes on our run to Christ we get lost or weighed down in sin and we need the sacrament of Reconciliation to lift off that weight. Sometimes I would get impatient or frustrated with myself because I couldn’t keep up with the faster people in the group. Likewise, sometimes we get impatient because we feel like we aren’t becoming holy fast enough. It’s important to remember that virtue is build one step at a time, through faithfulness to the little things. Little by little we grow and maybe the growth is so small we don’t notice it but eventually, step by step, with the help of others, the Saints, and Christ, we are 15K farther down the road and we’re running faster and faster.
As for who is running beside me a.k.a “my vocation,” that is not a concern for me right now. I have two years in Honduras which I’m going to use to run towards Christ and when the time does come, that man is going to have to run really fast if he’s going to keep up with me.
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